Summer Research Task Force: Surviving Memory Team Prepares Project Content for the New Academic Year

Summer remains a busy time for the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador team. A research task force composed of postdoctoral fellows, research assistants, local team members in El Salvador, and project leaders is working to review, update, and finalize project content before the new academic year begins in September. Many members of the team are working in Surviving Memory’s Oral History and Documentation Lab, which was established with funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario Research Fund (ORF), Western’s Faculty of Information and Media Studies, and Western Research.  

The team’s current goals include completing video editing and uploading materials to the massacre map, advancing the transcription and translation of interviews and testimonies, and updating news, events, publications, and project information on the website. A small team led by Dr. Giada Ferrucci is also overseeing research assistants who continue to digitize a large collection of material about El Salvador from York University’s Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean. 

This task force requires careful coordination. The team is managing hundreds of documents and sensitive files while also ensuring the quality and consistency of content in English, Spanish, and French. Members meet every Wednesday to review progress, address ongoing challenges, and coordinate the next steps.

According to Dr. Amanda Grzyb, project director, , “It’s awe-inspiring to see how seamlessly this large team works together on complex tasks like transcription, translation, digitization, data analysis, and video editing. I am so grateful to our project coordinator, Dr. Adriana Alas, who is coordinating the work along with postdocs, Dr. Giada Ferrucci and Dr. María Laura Flores Barba, and long-time lead research assistant, Yarubi Díaz Colmenares. Their dedication to the Surviving Memory initiative and to disseminating the memory of the Salvadoran Civil War is evident in everything they do.”  

The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.