Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award: Rachel E. Winston

Rachel E. Winston, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), is a 2015 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award. The award recognizes minority graduate students of African, Asian, Latino, or Native American descent who, through scholastic achievement, manifest an interest in becoming professional archivists and active members of SAA.

As a student, Winston has been committed to making herself “more capable to advocate for and work with collections and materials related to the African American and Black Diaspora experience.” Her interest, dedication, and enthusiasm for documenting the Black Diaspora is seen in her work with the Texas Domestic Slave Trade Project at UT Austin. Winston also recently completed ethnographic research and multilingual course work in Black Diaspora Studies in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to further define and improve her knowledge of Afro-Brazilian communities and history. Winston is active in many local organizations and serves as the secretary of the student SAA chapter at UT Austin.

Established in 1993, the award honors the late Dr. Harold T. Pinkett, who served with distinction during his long tenure at the National Archives and Records Administration and who was a Fellow of SAA. Also receiving the Pinkett Award this year is Talía Guzmán-González, a graduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park.