TRANS[FORMATION]: Digitizing Historical Trans+ Audiovisual Materials

DONATE 🇨🇦 https://extrweb.uvic.ca/donate-online... 🇺🇸 https://extrweb.uvic.ca/donation-form... Vault - UVic Libraries: https://vault.library.uvic.ca/ Chair in Transgender Studies: https://www.uvic.ca/research/transcha... Transgender Archives: https://www.uvic.ca/transgenderarchiv... Moving Trans History Forward: https://www.uvic.ca/mthf TRANS[FORMATION] Digitizing Historical Trans+ Audiovisual Materials: A Community Conversation about Accessibility and Risk Tuesday, June 23, 2026 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM PDT (ONLINE ONLY) University of Victoria (UVic) Libraries is home to the world’s largest Transgender Archives, a joint project with the Chair in Transgender Studies. In 2024, UVic Libraries received a Digitizing Hidden Special Collections & Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to digitize, preserve, describe, and make accessible at-risk audio-visual items documenting histories of Trans+ activism throughout the 1970s-2000s. The two-year grant runs through to the beginning of 2027. Cultural heritage organizations must navigate the ethically charged waters of protecting privacy while at the same time aspiring to openness and accessibility. These waters become increasingly challenging to navigate when today’s sociopolitical climate and technological advances are taken into serious consideration. Grappling with these ethical and practical tensions is at the core of the project, Trans(formation): Digitizing the Rikki Swin Institute Trans+ Activism and Outreach Media Collection. These tensions are of particular importance when creating digital collections of historical materials depicting Trans+ communities, whose survival throughout much of history has depended on the ability to keep their gender diversity hidden. This conversation-based online workshop offers a structured forum for Trans+ community members and allies who have relevant professional expertise. The session will review the progress of the project and invite participants to advise on how to best balance offering appropriate accessibility to historical Trans+ audiovisual materials against the risks associated with making the materials publicly available. Interested in learning more? Contact mikerad@uvic.ca. Michael Radmacher (MA, MLIS) is the Transgender Archives Metadata & Outreach Librarian at University of Victoria (UVic) Libraries. He has supported UVic’s Transgender Archives since 2014, has worked with UVic’s Chair in Transgender Studies from 2016 to 2025, and was the lead organizer of five international Moving Trans History Forward conferences. He is a member of the Homosaurus collective who currently serves on the Organizing Board. Dr. Aaron H Devor, PhD, FSSSS, FSTLHE, is the Chair in Transgender Studies at the University of Victoria (UVic) and has been studying and teaching about transgender topics since the mid-1980s. He is the Founder and Subject Matter Expert of the world’s largest Transgender Archives, Founder and Host of the Moving Trans History Forward conferences, a former Dean of Graduate Studies, and a professor of Sociology at UVic.