Last Thursday I visited the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) with Annaliese. She’s a SALT participant working with long term MCC partner Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Cambodia Peace Gallery in Battambang. She scheduled the meeting with DC-Cam’s Information Technology Coordinator, Morm Sophat, to ask DC-Cam for recommendations on archival databases, how to share records between the two agencies, and best practices for sharing records online.

The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) was founded by Yale University and constituted in 1995 after the U.S. Congress passed the Cambodian Genocide Justice Act in April 1994, which was signed into law by President Clinton. The Royal Government of Cambodia also formally supported DC-Cam. DC-Cam has received numerous accolades and awards for its work in support of memory and justice for victims of the Cambodian genocide. In 2017 alone, DC-Cam was the honored recipients of the Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award from the Center for Justice and Accountability, and his Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni made Youk Chhang a Commander of the Royal Order of Cambodia in recognition of Chhang’s distinguished services to the Kingdom of Cambodia. In 2018, DC-Cam also was a winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, which is regarded as ‘Asia’s Nobel’ prize, for preserving historical memory for healing and justice.

http://dccam.org/home

Annaliese, Morm Sophat, and I had a great meeting. We discussed a lot of technical details (that Computer Science degree is useful even when not programming) related to archival databases as well as synergies between the two organizations (Peace Gallery/DC-Cam). Annaliese has a degree in History and has a long term goal of to working in a museum education department or in curatorial affairs. The SALT program is giving her hands on experience helping a new museum (est. October 2018) grow.

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After the meeting, Morm Sophat gave us a quick tour of the DC-Cam office. They have a strong emphasis on using art to tell the stories that they’ve documented. Recently, they wrote a stage play telling one story and re-released Khmer pop musics from the 1960s.

DC-Cam had a few historic documents on file related to MCC that I asked for copies of. I’ll be sending them back to the MCC archives in Akron, Pennsylvania.

The DC-Cam office is open to the public (Khmer and International) and anyone can request copies of documents for a small fee. It’s located on a corner just beside the Independence Monument but it’s not easy to find due to the tiny, tiny sign. They are currently fundraising to build a new center/museum – the Sleuk Rith Institute. I’d definitely recommend including a quick visit on a trip to Phnom Penh.