Meredith Ahmed (‘26) has always been driven by her passion. She describes her career journey so far as a “journey of embracing things that I love.” She began working in archives during her undergrad at Warren Wilson College in 2019, learning that she “enjoyed the intricacies of history, public engagement, research, organization, and analysis,’ so much so that she came to SLIS right after graduating. There she had “the opportunity to take class projects in research in whatever directions I wanted to explore, which mainly focused on the preservation of rural and Appalachian History,” and while a student received and completed the Winterthur Institute Fellowship (2025) as a Decorative Arts Trust Scholar; she “really found the intersections of everything I have been focused on during my education: history, research, art, and objects. Being able to approach material culture analysis from an archivist perspective has been formative in my thinking.”
When asked about her favorite part of her current position, Meredith said “So many things! My program takes place at Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library. It is a 175-room house museum and one of the foremost collections of American Decorative Arts. As a fellow, our work practices close looking and interpretation, so we get to take full advantage of wandering a beautiful museum and engaging with beautiful objects every day while thinking critically about their creation and the relational dynamics between labor, class, and craft.”
They credit their SLIS professors for helping them think critically about the ways that archive's interact with and shape history, “they are not neutral sources but are shaped by institutional power and collection practices. Being able to address and research archival silences is crucial to how I think about those same silences in museum collections and interpretations.”
Her advice for current SLIS students is to remember their passion: “For me, living in Appalachia feels inextricable from my identity; thus, when working as an archivist, I wanted to focus on best representing the collections and communities I care about. For other students, try to think of the intricacies of your own identity and practice, and how you want to represent that; this can make your assignments and commitment to the field more holistic, grounded, and meaningful.”
Meredith would like to thank their SLIS professors for the way they were always inspired to do good work.