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avatar for Randy Williams

Randy Williams

Special Collections & Archives, Utah State University Libraries
Emerita Faculty, Fife Folklore Archives Curator
is emerita faculty (associate librarian) at Utah State University (USU). She served as the Fife Folklore Archives Curator and Oral History Specialist at USU Special Collections & Archives (1996-2019), Assistant Director of the Fife Folklore Archives (1993-1996), Assistant Director of USU Folklore Program (1996-2001), and Director of the Friends of the Library (1995-1998); she retired 31 December 2019. In addition, she served as an affiliate faculty member for the USU Folklore Program where she continues to teach ethnography. During her career she was the co-director of the USU/Library of Congress Field School for Cultural Documentation with colleague Lisa Gabbert. Along with managing the world-renowned Fife Folklore Archives, Williams directed USU community-based fieldwork projects, bringing the voices of diverse people from the Inter-Mountain West, many historically excluded, into the Archives.

Fieldwork includes:
Informing the National Narrative: Stories of Utah\\'s Opioid Crisis (January 2020)
Northern Utah Mormon Food Storage Fieldwork Collection, 1992-2002
Valentine\\'s Tea Collection
Great Salt Lake Wetlands Oral History Project: Box Elder County, 2017-2018
Jackson Hole Dude Ranching Traditions: Triangle X, 2017
Voices from Drug Court, 2016-2017
U.S. Election Reflections: Collecting Project
Swaner Legacy Oral History Project, 2015-2016
Cache Valley Refugee Oral History Project, 2015
Central Utah Project: Capturing Utah\\'s share of the Colorado River, 2012-2013
Ranch Family Documentation Project, 2009-2012
Collecting Memories: Oral Histories of American Folklorists, 2011-present
Logan Canyon Land Use Management Oral History Collection, 2008-2009
Latinx Voices Project, 2007 and 2012
Living Traditions of the Bear River Area, 1999-2004
USU Veterans History Project

Williams received the 2019 Dr. Everett L. Cooley Distinguished Archival Career Award from the Utah Manuscripts Association. For her work with excluded communities, she was awarded a 2017 Utah State University Diversity Award. With colleague Elisaida Mendez, she was honored with a 2009 Utah Humanities Human Ties Award for the Latinx Voices Project and she received a 2002 UH Merit Award for Living Traditions of the Bear River Heritage Area.

As a folklorist embedded in the library, Williams actively conducted research and produced scholarship on folklore topics and ethnographic fieldwork. Her collaborative fieldwork with the Cache Valley Drug Court community resulted in Voices from Drug Court (Utah Historical Quarterly 2018: Vol 86:2) and Voices from Drug Court: Partnering to Bring Historically Excluded Communities into the Archives, with Jennifer Duncan (Journal of Western Archives 2019:2). Collaborative fieldwork with the Latinx community resulted in Utah State University\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Cache Valley Latinx Voices Project: Social Justice in the Archives, with Eduardo Ortiz and Maria Luisa Spicer-Escalante (Journal of Western Archives: 2019:2). Fieldwork about the Great Salt Lake Wetlands resulted in M. Craig Dangerfield, Duck Guide: The Intersection of Personal Narrative and Great Salt Lake Wetland History (Utah Historical Quarterly 2019: Vol.87:1).

Fall 2016, Williams curated \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Fifty Years of Folk: The Austin and Alta Fife USU Folklore Legacy, 1966-2016\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" at the USU Library. Summer 2009, Williams curated \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Books and Buckaroos: USU Cowboy Poetry Collection\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" an exhibit highlighting USU\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s involvement with the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, from its 1985 beginning; a collection that she took to the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada each January for twenty-six years (1994-2020). Fall/Winter 2009-10, with Barbara