When Irina Rogova says that “something about this city called to [her],” she really means it, considering she’s moved to Richmond twice. The first time, she was hired for University of Richmond’s Race and Racism Project.
“I worked directly with students to connect their modern experiences of racism at the institution with historical precedents,” she says. The program would spur student-led change at UR, specifically the creation of the Africana Studies program and the renaming of buildings named after enslavers and segregationists.
Rogova remains proud of her work at UR and the network she fostered among activists, artists and community organizers. Those connections led to her involvement with Richmond Mutual Aid (MAD RVA) during the early days of the pandemic, as the collective organized to distribute supplies and aid directly to the community. But when her contract with UR ended, she took the first job opportunity that came along, which happened to be in Manhattan … Kansas.
Rogova planned on returning to Richmond when circumstances allowed. When a position as VCU Libraries’ Digital Initiatives Librarian opened up, and an opportunity to buy a house presented itself (a first for anyone in Rogova’s family), she didn’t hesitate. “A mantra I come back to a lot is something I first heard from organizer, educator, archivist and curator Mariame Kaba,” she says. “Hope is a discipline.”
In a banner year at VCU, Rogova has worked on collections featuring the ‘60s avant-garde Bang Arts festival; yearbooks from the St. Philip School of Nursing; photographs from the Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth of Virginia; in addition to a series of oral histories about the James River Park System.
“Sometimes it feels like continuing to grow archives is fruitless. Who are we saving all of these things for as we barrel towards a climate crisis that makes archiving more and more difficult?” Rogova says. “That is where hope comes in—we are building archives for future generations to understand all the complexities of human life through history, with the belief and hope that we will find ways to address the threats of today.”
On top of her work at VCU, Rogova remains an active member of MAD RVA. Her professional work is intertwined with her community organizing, as her efforts challenge Richmond’s systemic issues in real time to benefit the people who populate it.
