Media

SMACT Student Activism & Protest Archive Seeking Submissions

Call for Archival Submissions

Project Description 

Have you been involved in student advocacy or activism and have an object, artifact, photograph, or other protest ephemera you’d like to contribute to the archive? 

We are accepting digital and material submissions to the student protest archive!

The Studio for Media Activism & Critical Thought (SMACT) at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) invites students, community members, and academics to contribute to the creation of a Student Advocacy Archive documenting the ongoing history of post-secondary student activism across Canada to be housed at the Toronto Metropolitan University Archives & Special Collections. 

Our goal in developing this hybrid archive, housing both digital and material student activist ephemera, is to document how post-secondary student social justice advocacy has been, and continues to be, on the forefront of social change. Important student involvement has recently taken place in movements such as People’s Climate March, Idle No More, and Black Lives Matter. We want to document the important contributions of student activists across Canada, which will both serve as a repository for future researchers studying student protest histories, while also culminating in a related symposium, archival exhibition, and speaker series convening community activists, scholars, and students engaged in protest and advocacy efforts. 

Students, community members, and activists are encouraged to contribute digital or material records of ephemera. Contributions can be submitted in a wide variety of possible formats including photographs, videos, posters, pins/buttons, signs, pamphlets, and other content related to student activism in Canada. Contributed content can be submitted for public display during a workshop and/or exhibition event in January 2023, and will eventually be made publicly available as part of TMU’s permanent archival collection. For more information about the symposium click here.

Examples of possible content:

Images: photographs, screen captures of social media, communications, posters, signs, other protest-related artwork, and other expressions of the movement

Audio files, songs, spoken word performances, recordings of speeches or rallies

Videos, gifs, or other short moving image clips

Written documentation, fliers, pamphlets/brochures, zines, banners

Files: protest posters, community notices, emails, announcements

Physical submissions to the archive can include small objects such as pamphlets, posters, buttons, patches, etc. 

Submission Criteria: 

Archival submissions must be related to student advocacy and activist organizing in Canada from between 1970-2020

Content must be related to a student protest event or movement & can be submitted by anyone knowledgeable about the context of the submission

Student organizing can have taken place across Canada, and does not need to have been directly affiliated with Canadian Universities nor have occured on campus 

File size of contributed content does not exceed 100MB

Metadata submitted is deemed to be accurate by the administrator 

Submitted content does not infringe on any existing copyright

How to Submit

To contribute, please read our Terms & Conditions and fill out this form: 

Student Advocacy Archive Submission Form

The Deadline to apply is November 10, 2022 at 11 pm. 

Questions? Please review our FAQ, if you don’t see your question reflected here please contact Lauren Morris, the archival research assistant at lauren.sara.morris@ryerson.ca! 

Archival Exhibition/Workshop – January 2023

Successful applicants to the Student Advocacy Archive will be invited to participate in an Archival Exhibit/Workshop to be held alongside the graduate student symposium in January 2023. If you are interested in participating in the Archival Exhibit/Workshop please indicate this in your application.

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