US Library of Congress, American Folklife Center

HEAD OF COLLECTION

I head the collection "Food Processing and Legacy Trades" for the Library of Congress' Occupational Folklife Project. The project is housed in the Library's American Folklife Center and is a multi-year documentation project that seeks to capture a portrait of America's workforce.

The interviews, which average 50-60 minutes in length, feature workers discussing their current jobs and formative work experiences, reflecting on their training, on-the-job challenges and rewards, aspirations, and occupational communities. Interviewees are typically asked to trace the life experiences, career choices and educational paths that lead them to their present jobs and share their thoughts on the future of their professions. I conducted interviews with workers in legacy agricultural trades (ranching, sugaring) across the United States.

The American Folklife Center Archive, established in 1928, is one of the largest archives of ethnographic materials from around the world, encompassing millions of items of ethnographic and historical documentation recorded from the nineteenth century to the present. The collections offer researchers access to the songs, stories, and other creative expressions of people from the diverse communities that create America.