(This is an unfinished and evolving series of thoughts on citation in the context of this project.)
This guide is shared as a public domain work. That means there is no legal requirement to ask permission to reproduce or use its contents (though there remains an ethical and scholarly obligation to cite one's sources). However, this project incorporates materials which hold special meanings for some people, especially descendants, Chinese Americans and Asian Americans more broadly, and I want to encourage care in reusing them.
I often feel that the ideas behind public domain, copyright, etc., flatten some nuanced ethical considerations into a question of property. And the practice of citation can become a formal obligation to fulfill rather than an act of thanks and an expression of respect.
This isn't solely a matter of citation, although I deeply appreciate the work done, especially by Black feminist scholars, to challenge and remake citation as a practice. (some resources below)
To be more specifie, public domain is something that "happens" (from a property perspective, or is assumed to be a default state that copyright delays... rabbit hole), but in my work I'm incorporating stories and memories which I don't feel "belong" to everyone by default, and which I do my best to learn from and listen to with care. I'm always asking myself who has an ethical right to an image, a representation... it's rarely the copyright holder, if there even is one. It's not the public as conceived of in "the commons". It's neither an academic or intellectual property framework.
More thoughts on this soon.
Thanks to those who have shared the following resources related to citation practices:
"Footnotes (Books and Papers Scattered about the Floor)" from the book Dear Science and Other Stories by Katherine McKittrick: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781478012573-003/html
AICA-USA Distinguished Lecture: Legacy Russell - https://vimeo.com/656701764
Making Feminist Points - https://feministkilljoys.com/2013/09/11/making-feminist-points/