Dominique Luster, Candidate for Nominating Committee

Dominique Luster

Teenie Harris Archivist,
Carnegie Museum of Art

“We have the ability to eliminate tokenism and marginalization at the grass root level and conduct a trickledown effect that would strategically influence the entire organization.”

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Teenie Harris Archivist, Carnegie Museum of Art, 2016–present.
• Liaison Librarian, University of Pittsburgh, 2015–2016.

EDUCATION

• MLIS, Archives and Information Management, University of Pittsburgh.
• BA, Theatre Design and Technology, University of Kentucky.
• Leadership Training: Coro Pittsburgh, Women in Leadership, National Leaders Council, Pittsburgh.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Society of American Archivists: Member (2016–present). 
• Black Caucus of the American Library Association: Literary Awards Committee.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND AWARDS

• “Teenie Harris Photographs: Erroll Garner and Jazz from the Hill,” Archivists and Archives of Color Newsletter, Winter 2017, Vol. 31, no. 2.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

• Teenie Harris Photographs: Service and Sacrifice, Carnegie Museum of Art, January–May 2018.
• “Cultural Competency and Conscious Language in Archival Descriptive Practices,” Society of American Archivist Annual Meeting, 2017.
• Teenie Harris Photographs: Erroll Garner and Jazz from the Hill, Carnegie Museum of Art, December 2016–June 2017.
• “Careful Mediation: Concealing, Revealing, and Constructing Identities,” OPERATING IDENTITY, History of Art and Architecture Graduate Symposium, University of Pittsburgh, 2016.
• “Art >=< Archives,” Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, 2016.

An essential component of the Nominating Committee’s work is identification of rising and seasoned leaders within SAA and the archival profession who embody the varied facets of professional diversity. Describe how you interpret this core responsibility and how you will identify candidates who represent a variety of backgrounds and perspectives and who demonstrate commitment to SAA’s strategic goals.

CANDIDATE'S RESPONSE

The Nominating Committee has the unique opportunity to help cultivate and foster the future of SAA by identifying and encouraging excellent leadership into the pipeline. In the best effort to identify candidates who represent diverse backgrounds and perspectives, I would strive to incorporate diversity into every slate of nominees. By doing this, we have the ability to eliminate tokenism and marginalization at the grass root level and conduct a trickledown effect that would strategically influence the entire organization. Encouraging and nominating candidates from diverse backgrounds and perspectives would positively impact all four goals outlined in the 2018–2020 SAA Strategic Plan. Diverse candidates for SAA leadership positions would bring their unique experiences and backgrounds with them to advocate for greater representation among archives and archivists; they would not only encourage new diverse archivists to join the profession, but would help to retain early and mid-career professionals, drive the profession forward by expanding the cannon of archival scholarship and education, and serve as an honest representation of the SAA membership in order to better and more effectively meet members’ needs.

With these larger SAA strategic goals in mind, I would work to identify potential leaders among women, archivists of color, archivists with disabilities, and archivists of the LGBTQIA+ community, who are younger in their careers. My goal is to help SAA start early and build up. 

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