Embracing Discomfort 

Ashley Rockenbach hopes that she never forgets to question her role as an archivist. 

California. Michigan. Uganda. The Netherlands. Malawi. Virginia. New York. India. North Carolina. 

Graduate student Ashley Rockenbach’s life as a scholar, teacher, and researcher has taken her around the world. Now, her passion for exploration and learning has brought her to UNC-Chapel Hill to pursue a master’s in library science with a concentration in archives and records management.  

Uganda 

As a history student, Rockenbach was familiar with using archival materials for research. Her first experience seeing how archives were organized, however, came during an experience working on a multi-year cataloging project with the National Archives in Uganda (UNA) during her doctoral program in African history.  Under the supervision of UNA archives staff, she and a team of North American and Ugandan graduate students created catalogs for not only the National Archives, but also several local government repositories across the country.

“The history of archives in Uganda is really interesting. A lot of historians today know that Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania were where the British pioneered their efforts of culling their colonial archives. So, they edited, threw away, destroyed, or removed files from across their empire, but East Africa was where they first started this work. And so, we knew that there had been this giant culling that happened around the 1940s and ’50s. But there was also this assumption [among western historians] that during the ’70s and ’80s, when Uganda went through a number of really difficult periods with Idi Amin and then a civil war, a lot of records were destroyed. But what [western] historians began realizing from around the ’90s onwards was that that wasn’t the case. That a lot of archivists and records managers stowed things away in attics and basements [during that turbulent post-independence period]. There was actually a lot of stuff that was pretty well preserved. And if you knew who to ask, you could often find them.” 

The experience not only gave Rockenbach a fresh perspective on archives, but it also inspired an interest in a community-focused approach to the field.  

Questioning the Role of Documentation 

Rockenbach said her interest in moving from history to archives didn’t happen overnight.  

“Working on this archival cataloging project was like, ‘What business do I have doing this at all?’ You know, it’s one thing to say you need to respect other people’s property, you need to be self-aware, and you need to think about histories of race and colonialism when you’re working in the archive. That’s one thing. It’s another thing to actually be in an actual archive that has been shaped by colonial purges and (later) unscrupulous or entitled foreign researchers. And so I found that reflecting on my own motivations and building relationships was more important than anything I might do on the cataloging front. That discomfort has always stayed with me, and I take that discomfort with me because I think it’s important. I should always be aware that I’m here (working with archives) because somebody else has allowed me to be here.” 

Finding Community at SILS 

After working as a teacher, Rockenbach says it’s a joy to be back in the classroom as a learner. She also enjoys her new sense of purpose, and the ability to pick strategically from the wide range of opportunities at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) to pursue her specific interests.   She also says that she’s been stunned by her classmates, who bring a wealth of experience and insights into the classroom and who have been some of her most impactful teachers.  

Rockenbach is in the second year of her graduate program and is eager to learn more about the specific topic of community archiving. She hopes that she can build a career working with individuals or community groups who want to preserve their own work, culture, or heritage. She is the 2024 recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ F. Gerald Ham and Elsie Ham Scholarship.

“Nothing would make me happier. I think the most thrilling moments being here at SILS are when I’m working with students who want to find family history at Wilson Library. It’s that kind of day-to-day work that I’m really invested in.”  

When asked what sort of impact she hopes to make, Rockenbach says, “I think it would be about making archives more approachable for people who maybe didn’t see themselves as belonging in that space.” 