Gwen Gosney Erickson began at Guilford in a part-time position in 1995, becoming full-time in 1998. She has been in her current (but ever-evolving) role as archivist and special collections librarian since 2000.

Gwen's scholarly research interests focus on the intersections of Quaker Studies, African American history, Gender Studies, and U.S. social justice movements, especially those with local connections within wider contexts and ways that faith and identity inform our historical narratives. She enjoys sharing resources and connecting people to history through access to primary sources that deepen our understanding of the human experience and its many complexities.

As archivist for both Guilford College and for the Society of Friends in the Southeastern United States, she routinely handles inquiries relating to the history of the College, Quakers in North Carolina, and individuals and organizations associated with those topics. She's currently co-chair of the College's Curry-Coffin Commission on Slavery, Race, and Recognition and led research into institutional legacies relating to Guilford's being a historically white institution with abolitionist roots and a history of racial segregation.

Gwen doesn't usually teach a full semester course but she does serve as a guest lecturer and provider of resources to a variety of courses across the curriculum each term and as an internship site supervisor. She has taught history and archival-studies courses and supervised special topic independent study courses.

Selected Scholarship

• "Library as Metaphor: Entering a New Chapter," Friends Journal, November 2017 (https://www.friendsjournal.org/guilford-library/)
• "Defining Quaker History in the Twentieth Century? Cultural Memory, Quaker Identity, and Archives," in An Early Assessment: U.S. Quakerism in the 20th Century: Papers from the Quaker History Roundtable, June 8 - 11, 2017, edited by Chuck Fager, 2017.
• ”Faith, Love, and Trust: Maintaining Unity in the Face of Evolving Concepts of Marriage and Sexuality,” North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Journal ( #7, 2016).