2023 Aya Symposium - Hybrid
Thursday, June 8, 2023
University of North Texas at Dallas
7300 University Hills Blvd.; Dallas, TX 75241
This year’s annual symposium theme: "Using Technology to Tell Your Freedom Colony Story" focuses on enhancing the average freedom colony descendant's and/or community member’s understanding the myriad of tools available to preserve, document, and promote their freedom colonies. This means introducing a “pen and paper heritage conservationist” to tools that can make data gathering more effective and easier to access while helping the computer-savvy person get the most out of the apps they may currently use and introducing them to even newer tools.
During this event, attendees will learn about a full technological range of preservation and documentation strategies -- from traditional photo storage to cutting-edge Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) solutions.
Freedom colonies’ aging population, declining physical properties, vulnerability to natural disasters, and lack of access to archival development services and digitization increase the likelihood that Black place heritage will be lost forever. The goal of this symposium is to slow the rate of that loss.
Visit www.ayasymposium.org for updates and information!