Coherent Digital launches new collections: Indigenous Peoples; Refugees, Borders, and Migration; and LGBTQ+
Introduction
On May 1, 2025, Coherent Digital released three new collections—LGBTQ+; Indigenous Peoples; and Refugees, Borders, and Migration—as part of its Social Justice and Culture Series. This project opens access to more than 500,000 previously difficult-to-locate, challenging-to-cite, and vulnerable materials from over 3,000 organizations across 100 countries, supporting research and education.
“We’re delivering twenty-first-century content to today’s researchers using twenty-first-century tools. These resources meet students in their digital environment, accommodating diverse learning approaches and connecting to current global issues,” noted Bob Lester, Editor. “The series already far surpasses available resources in this area—and these are dynamic collections that will keep expanding.”
The Social Justice and Culture Series highlights genuine, modern perspectives through alternative media such as blogs, podcasts, zines, and community-produced videos. At launch, it includes three modules:
LGBTQ+ Social Justice and Culture
Covering the 1980s to today, this collection captures queer and trans stories using protest materials, digital narratives, community media, and independent publications. It incorporates perspectives from nations where LGBTQ+ expression is frequently suppressed or outlawed.
Indigenous Peoples Social Justice and Culture
This module highlights Indigenous voices and movements globally, offering content in native languages and community-generated formats. It features works from Māori artists in New Zealand, Sami advocates in Scandinavia, and groups across Russia and South America, among others.
Refugees, Migration, and Borders Social Justice and Culture
Combining resources from grassroots campaigns, NGO documents, personal blogs, podcasts, and social media, this collection explores the personal realities of migration and displacement. It covers topics from Cold War resettlements and postcolonial migrations to contemporary crises in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Conclusion
These modules serve interdisciplinary study in sociology, anthropology, political science, gender and queer studies, Indigenous studies, media studies, and global studies. The series prioritizes direct, firsthand accounts and community-led stories, offering students and researchers primary sources unavailable through other channels.
Many items—such as activist zines, mobile-recorded podcasts, or temporary websites—are inherently ephemeral, but Coherent’s search tools and enriched metadata ensure they can be discovered, referenced, and used academically. Rather than framing history through institutional lenses, Social Justice and Culture returns narrative authority to communities. The content is immediate—unpolished, political, humorous, impassioned, restorative, and often powerful.
“We welcome scholars, librarians, and community groups to help us identify new sources and voices to include,” said Stephen Rhind-Tutt, Coherent cofounder. “We aim to build a living archive that records social movements as they unfold.”
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