Reanimate

Reanimate emerged from conversations between co-directors Roopika Risam and Carol Stabile about making archival materials that Carol used while writing her latest monograph available for her readers. This prolific body of work by women working in media and engaged in activism from the 1930s to the 1950s sheds light on untold stories of the influences of race, gender, class, and other axes of identity and oppression on women in media. However, much of this writing has never been published and the market forces on academic publishing are structural obstacles to their recovery.

Access to this material, which has not been digitized, holds significant possibilities for challenging entrenched genealogies of cultural studies and media studies. This writing further speaks to the unique challenges of working in and changing the power dynamics within media industries. At a time when the #MeToo movement, started by Tarana Burke, is calling attention to sexual harassment and sexual violence in many sectors, perhaps most notably in media, writing from women activists at earlier moments in media history reveals a longer, complex history of women trying to change their industries.

Thus, Reanimate was born, with the goal of leveraging the co-directors’ experiences in open access publishing, digital editions, and cultural and media studies to recover this writing and reanimate the histories of cultural and media studies with unheard voices.

Our published volumes include Fredi Washington: A Reader in Black Feminist Media Criticism, The Ada Journal Reader, and The Ghost Reader Digital Companion.