About Us

The Southern Memory Workers Collaborative is a network of activists, organizers, and cultural workers who are dedicated to documenting, preserving and stewarding, traditions, and liberatory practices in the U.S. South.

Originally convened by Ashby Combahee and Dartricia Rollins, and based on their work with Georgia Dusk, we create learning opportunities for memory workers in supportive environments.

Our Advisory Committee

Ashby Combahee (s/he/they) is a memory worker and full-time librarian & archivist at the Highlander Research and Education Center.

Margaret Lawson (they/them) is a queer community historian and public educator raised in central Mississippi.

Maranda Perez (they/she) is Highlander Research and Education Center’s Library and Archive Collections Manager

Dartricia Rollins (she/her) is the Visiting Librarian for Oral History in the Rose Library at Emory University and co-founder of Georgia Dusk: a southern liberation oral history

Caroline Rubens (she/her) is a cultural worker and archivist based in eastern Kentucky.

Sophie Ziegler (they/them) is an archivist, oral historian, parent, and aspiring juggler based in Louisiana.

About Our Southern Focus

We focus on the US South because we are southerners and we understand this region is traditionally under-resourced and over-exploited, resulting in the loss of memory and stories related to our struggles, victories, and joys.

  • Alabama

  • Arkansas

  • Florida

  • Mississippi

  • North Carolina

  • South Carolina

  • Georgia

Our focus is memory work within the following US States:

  • Kentucky

  • Louisiana

  • Tennessee

  • Texas

  • Virginia

  • West Virginia