Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez, Candidate for Nominating Committee

Professional Experience: Processing Archivist for Latin American Collections, Princeton University, 2015–present. Project Archivist, Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), 2013–2015. Processing Archivist, University of Pittsburgh, 2011–2013. Diversity Librarian and Fellow, University Library System and iSchool, University of Pittsburgh, 2010–2012.

Education: MLIS, Specialization in Archives, Preservation, and Records Management, University of Pittsburgh, 2011; BA, Art History, UCLA, 2008.

Professional Activities: LIS Microaggressions + Zine: Founding Collective Member, 2014–present; ePADD Lexicon Working Group: Member, 2016–present; Princeton University: Description and Access to Born-Digital Archival Collections (DABDAC) Member, 2016–present; Archival Description Group Member, 2015–present. Art Libraries Society of America (ARLIS): Diversity Committee, 2012–2015. Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians: 2012 cohort. Other: Oral History Participant in CFP: Human Operators: A Critical Oral History of Technology in Libraries, by Melissa Morrone, Library Juice Press (forthcoming).

Peer–Reviewed Publications: Book Review: “Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala,” in The American Archivist, 80:1 (forthcoming Spring/Summer 2017). "The Reach of a Long Arm Stapler: Calling in Microaggressions in the LIS Field through Zine Making" with Rose L. Chou, Jenna Friedman, Simone Fujita, and Cynthia Mari Orozco, Library Trends, 66:4 (forthcoming Spring 2018).

Selected Presentations: “Radical Empathy in Archival Practice,” with Shannon O’Neill, Molly Brown, Dinah Handel, Jasmine Jones, Rachel Mattson, Giordana Mecagni, Holly Smith, and Kelly Wooten, Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, 2017. “Moving Beyond the Lone Digital Archivist Model Through Collaboration and Living Documentation,” with Kelly Bolding, code4lib, 2017. “Invisible Defaults and Perceived Limitations: Processing the Juan Gelman Files,” Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group (PASIG) meeting, 2016.“Hacia el sur: la militancia poética y la poesía militante de Juan Gelman,” SALALM, 2016. “Offensive Mechanisms, Constructive Paths: How to Recognize and Deal With Microaggressions in the LIS Field,” LACUNY, 2016. “Digital Humanities and Academic Libraries: Practice and Theory, Power and Privilege,” ALA, 2014. “Increasing the Diversity Dialogue: Sharing Our Experiences with Microaggressions in Librarianship,” poster presented with Cynthia Mari Orozco and Rose L. Chou, Diversity and Outreach Fair, ALA, 2014. “All Power to the People: Collecting and Preserving the Art of Social Movements,” ARLIS, 2014.

* * *
 

Question posed by Nominating Committee:

An essential component of the nomination and election process is identification of new leaders within SAA who embody the diversity of the archives profession. Describe what you believe to be the core responsibility of the members of the Nominating Committee, and outline your ideas for identifying the next generation of SAA leaders to ensure that new or distinctive voices and perspectives contribute to the future of the profession.

Candidate's Response:

We can no longer afford to relegate issues of diversity as bygone niche concerns of a “post-racial” society. We now know, after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, that the notion of a “post-racial” society is no longer a sustained myth. Relatedly, the very well-being of the archival profession is at stake under a presidential administration that refuses to accept known facts and threatens access to resources and information. Now, more than ever, we need to nurture strong advocates for the diversity of our profession both demographically and in the breadth of our collections and institutions. Thanks to the critical efforts made by members of SAA, issues of diversity were bolstered in the 2014–2018 SAA Strategy Plan document. This was an excellent example of the practiced agility that SAA, as an organization, needs to sustain in order to keep relevant to its membership and society at-large. It is this same agility and responsiveness to the SAA membership that the Nominating Committee must sustain when putting forward a new slate of candidates for SAA leadership. We need leaders who are not only willing to be held accountable by the membership of the organization, but are in touch with, and will be responsive to, how the current political climate can directly affect the wellness of the profession.

As a member of the Nominating Committee, I will work together with my colleagues to ensure that the following roster of SAA leaders not only embody the diversity of the archives profession through their advocacy for issues of access, intellectual property, digital preservation, and more inclusive representation of historically marginalized communities in archival collections, but uphold it through loud compassion for all members of our profession and members of vulnerable communities who may be directly impacted by potential new government policies that restrict access to information.

2017 ELECTION HOME