We are pleased to welcome Preetam Singhvi to the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI), where he will be contributing as a junior software developer to the ‘Digital Preservation of Reproductive Health Resources: Archiving the 8th’ (Archiving Reproductive Health) project.
We are pleased to welcome Preetam Singhvi to the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI), where he will be contributing as a junior software developer to the ‘Digital Preservation of Reproductive Health Resources: Archiving the 8th‘ (Archiving Reproductive Health) project. This project will provide long-term preservation and access to the many at-risk archives generated by grassroots women’s reproductive health movements during the Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment.
Preetam holds a B.A.I. in Computer Engineering from Trinity College Dublin and comes to us with experience in a variety of roles including web developer, technical innovation lead, marketing intern, and global ambassador within industry and Trinity College Dublin. In his role as a junior software developer for the Archiving Reproductive Health project, he will be working as part of the DRI’s technical team based at Trinity College Dublin to enhance and maintain the Repository platform. He will also work closely with other DRI team members in Trinity College Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, and Maynooth University to identify areas where the Repository functionality can be expanded to better support the archiving of at-risk material from women’s reproductive rights campaigns.
Commenting on his new role with the Archiving Reproductive Health project, Preetam said:
This project is an integral part of Irish history research which sheds light on the experiences and stories of women who were impacted by the patriarchal society as well as issues such as class and race. Being a part of this project and research allows us to provide a safe and secure platform to preserve these stories.
We are acknowledging the anguish that these women endured by preserving these stories digitally. The preservation of their stories will help to de-stigmatise abortion, inspire more research into the topic, and hopefully influence policy reform. It will also recognise the contributions of the story’s collaborators and, most importantly, guarantee that these women are remembered. I’m really excited to get started on this project.
Digital Archivist and Coordinator Clare Lanigan welcomed Preetam to the project:
I’m delighted to welcome Preetam to the Archiving Reproductive Health project. Developing ways of preserving the significant conversations that took place on social media during the Campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment is a key part of this project, and it’s wonderful to have someone of Preetam’s expertise and experience (in both software development and working with civic society organisations) on board.
We look forward to working with Preetam to develop tools and functionality to export content from a variety of online and social media platforms, transform it into archival formats, and display the social record of women’s reproductive rights work within the DRI platform for long-term preservation and access.
