Part of the project’s mission is to raise awareness of CUNY’s archival collections. These are some of the publications, live events and press coverage that are part of that outreach effort.
June 2026
Queens College Department of History recognized associate archivists Erin A’Hearn, Wilhelmine Coste, Patrick McGee, and Scout Zabel in the Spring 2026 newsletter, for their work writing the Red Scare at CUNY research guide.
May 2026
The Times of Israel has published an in-depth article about the CUNY archives survey as seen through the lens of Jewish materials found across the campuses. They highlight documentary footage, which is available through Brooklyn College’s JSTOR instance, photos from Queens College, and CCNY’s student newspapers.
April 2026
Jessy J. Perez-Camilo, CUNY Dominican Studies Institute archivist, was recently profiled for Caribbean Life. In the interview, she talks about how she became an archivist, how she’s using the survey data to inform her work, and her hopes for the future of the CUNY DSI archives.
What’s CUNY’s archival survey style? Outreach and Processing Archivist Regina Carra and Associate Archivist Erin A’Hearn published an article about how the team developed their CUNY-wide archival survey methods in the March/April 2026 issue of Archival Outlook. As part of the article, there’s even a quiz you can take to find out whether you’re a preservation prioritizer, content curious, a pragmatic programmatic planner, or specially specialized.
February 2026
SEEK in CUNY Archives is an inclusive research guide to archival materials about the Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program, and College Discovery (CD) program available at CUNY archives. The SEEK Program was established within CUNY in 1965 on the pre-baccalaureate level to integrate Black and Puerto Rican students into the CUNY system and expanded to other senior-level colleges in 1966. The program provides students with academic and financial support, as well as tutoring and counseling services. Currently, the SEEK Program is available at twelve of CUNY’s four-year colleges. College Discovery is a two-year program offered at six of CUNY’s community colleges and provides students with the same opportunities as the SEEK program on an associate degree level.
The guide is available the digital publishing platform CUNY Manifold and as a downloadable document on CUNY Academic Works and the CUNY Central Archives LibGuide.
January 2026
The Cultivating Archives & Institutional Memory Associate Archivists have made significant contributions to Wikimedia platforms. This Associate Archivists 2025 page explores that work.
December 2025
The Red Scare at CUNY is a comprehensive guide to archives documenting anti-communist political repression of faculty, staff, and students at CUNY, primarily from the 1930s-1960s. Organized by repository, it highlights relevant collections within CUNY, evaluated by the authors in consultation and collaboration with archivists at Brooklyn College, City College, Hunter College, and Queens College in 2025. Each entry is accompanied by a description that incorporates information from finding aids and other published research. These collections include faculty personal and professional papers, student activist materials, and oral histories. The guide also includes collections from other repositories within New York City and New York State, as well as an abridged bibliography of published writings on higher education, the Red Scare and McCarthyism.
The guide is available on the digital publishing platform CUNY Manifold and as a downloadable document on CUNY Academic Works and the CUNY Central Archives LibGuide.
September 2025
Episode 112: “Wikipedia is the CUNY of the Internet” – Indoor Voices Podcast
In this episode, you’ll hear a conversation between three avid champions of Wikipedia and all its offshoots. Ann Matsuuchi, an instructional technology librarian at the LaGuardia Community College Library who has been a guest host on this podcast before, facilities a great discussion with Natalie Milbrodt, University Archivist and co-principal investigator (with Michael Waldman, Interim University Dean of Libraries and Information Resources ) of the Cultivating Archives project, and Wikimedian-in-Residence Richard Knipel. They provide some context that many of us might overlook or take for granted, that is, an overview and appreciation of Wikipedia and its role and evolution over the nearly 25 years of its existence. They focus on CUNY’s active role in facilitating community engagement in documenting history and culture for CUNY citizens, New Yorkers and the world.
July 2025
University Archivist Natalie Milbrodt writes for the CUNYverse about her career trajectory and experience with the Cultivating Archives & Institutional Memory Project.
Associate Archivist Kevin O’Leary writes for The Metropolitan Archivist, the online publication of the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, on the development of travel training and the New York Disability Rights Archive.
Associate Archivist Patrick McGee writes for Advocate, a CUNY Graduate Center publication, about the Black American Heritage Foundation Music History Archive and the meaning of community.
June 2025
Laguardia Community College Archivist Thomas Cleary and Associate Archivist Gianna Fraccalvieri present the newly processed Division of Cooperative Education Collection. The revolutionary Cooperative Education program was a crucial part of LaGuardia Community College’s curriculum from the early 1970s through the early 2010s. The contents of this collection demonstrate how the Cooperative Education Program became a model for career-driven curriculum among higher education institutions at CUNY, which in turn, influenced the development of similar programs across New York City and beyond. This video features some of the founders and beneficiaries of the program, as well as the archivists connected to the collection.
May 2025
City Tech Collections Management Librarian Wanett Clyde and Associate Archivist Carlos Semchechen present the newly processed Student Newspapers Collection. The Student Newspapers Collection consists of student publications spanning nearly seven decades. These newspapers document key historical events, student governance changes, social movements, academic milestones, and cultural discussions and events within the college community. The collection reflects the evolution of the institution and broader societal shifts, providing insight into the diverse student body and their engagement with local and national issues.
CUNY is working with Wikipedia to feed the information ecosystem more accessible, deeply researched articles on a variety of topics—including some fading from public memory. Written by Kathryn Palmer for Inside Higher Ed.
April 2025
Former Director of the District 75 Travel Training Program Peggy Groce and documentary film producer & former educator Susan Abdulezer hold a conversation on the history of travel training, Peggy’s role in its creation, and the broader context of disability rights in New York City.
March 2025
College of Staten Island Archivist and Professor James Kaser details the school’s collaboration with the NYC Disability Rights Archive on the development of collections documenting the history of the disability rights movement in NYC.
