Liv Linn graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018 with a BA in Women’s and Gender Studies. As a Robertson Scholar, she was able to explore her love of storytelling and what she would eventually call documentary writing at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Once there, that love quickly developed into an ardent belief in the power of stories both to reflect and shape culture and to propel social change.
As a student of both documentary and feminism, Liv has investigated a variety of subjects—Black student activism at the University of North Carolina, the Matagalpan women’s antiviolence movement in Nicaragua, her own lineage and whiteness, queer bodies—through as many mediums, including audio documentary, oral history, documentary poetry, and zines. Much of her work is born from collaborations with community organizations, primarily the Southern Oral History Program, Compass Center for Women and Families, and Colectivo de Mujeres Matagalpa.
I was drawn to the Hine Fellowship not only by its position at the intersection of storytelling and social change, but also by its emphasis on critically navigating the ethics of documentary work. I am grateful for the chance to develop my passions for these things with the support of the Fellowship. My hope is to honor this opportunity and the work of the Staten Island Justice Center by creating pieces “with” rather than “about” individuals and communities they serve, working with them to tell their own stories.