Linda Smith, an archival intern at the Zohrab Center who is a graduate student in New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program, recently presented her archival work at the Zohrab Center in a poster session at the annual meeting of The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Her poster, entitled “Responsibly Stewarding for Others: Preserving Armenian Culture,” related to her experience working with Armenian cultural materials, documents, and artifacts as a non-Armenian who knew little about Armenian culture, history, and language before beginning her internship at the Zohrab Center.

Working under the supervision of Zohrab Center director, Dr. Jesse Arlen, Linda Smith learned the Armenian alphabet and engaged in research about Armenian history and culture relevant to each collection she processed. Over the course of her year-long internship at the Zohrab Center, supported in part thanks to a generous gift from benefactor Dean Shahinian, she helped or was the lead processor in nine individual special collections, whose finding aids may be viewed here.

These collections ranged from photographs of Vava Sarkis Khachaturian, the personal papers and research files of Loretta Topalian Nassar, maps and atlases, anniversary and memorial event publications, as well as materials related to the Armenian Cause and Genocide and much more.

You can read more about her experience on her blog, in which she writes of the challenges and rewards of working with Armenian materials at the Zohrab Center: Im-Poster Syndrome, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Process.

We wish Linda Smith continued success in her graduate program at NYU!