Institutionalizing heritage and fostering resilience: The role of the Sindh Studies Center in cultural leadership

Abstract

Cultural regional libraries repositories in the region are vital elements of socio-demographic change and globalization to the community's resilience, community identity and local socio-cultural leadership. This study includes the operational and pedagogical architecture of Sindh Studies Center (SSC) which was established in March 2012 under the Faculty of Social Sciences at SZABIST University Karachi, Pakistan. Sindh Studies Center is a Sindhi culture regional library. The paper draws on a qualitative single site case study approach, with key informant interviews and archival audits, to explore how the center has been transformed from a storage space to a space for social change and community advocacy. The results show the implementation of the Sindhi language courses, fully free language literacy, visits to heritage sites led by the students as evidence of a framework that can be transferred to community engagement. It is concluded after the study that proactive cultural leadership undertaken by Academic and Research Librarian (ARL’s) in a multicultural federation in a community-based approach can help to combat the erasure of marginal histories.