CPS to Hold Special Election

CPS will hold a special election to fill a vacant seat on the CPS Steering Committee. Biographical information and responses from the two candidates are below: 

1. Rebecca Denne, Special Projects Archivist, University of South Carolina, South Carolina Political Collections, M.L.S., M.A. Public History

 What is your experience with congressional papers?

My experience with political papers began with graduate research in the Mayoral Archives in Indianapolis which houses the collections of local mayors like Richard Lugar, William Hudnut III, Stephen Goldsmith, Bart Peterson, and Greg Ballard. I partnered with the Indiana Humanities Council to organize a historic bar crawl which focused on the city’s reaction to political change in the 1970s. Skits presented by actors from the Indiana Historical Society allowed participants to engage with issues like the Equal Rights Amendment and forced bussing in a fun event. As Special Projects Archivist for the University of South Carolina’s Political Collections, I am in charge of processing collections, curating exhibits, and spearheading outreach efforts on campus and in the wider community. While I am new to the field, I believe my fresh perspective would benefit the CPS Steering Committee by allowing me to clearly understand and address the needs of other emerging professionals.

 What do you bring to the CPS Steering Committee?

As an emerging professional, I bring energy, creativity, and an open mind to the Steering Committee. I recently interned with the National Council on Public History (NCPH) and wrote the weekly newsletter to our members highlighting professional development opportunities, jobs, and news from the field. I also managed the mentoring and volunteering programs at the annual meeting. Working with NCPH helped me to realize the importance of an active professional organization to the field – and especially to new professionals. In my position at the University of South Carolina’s Political Collections, I am exploring new ways to exhibit political papers with participatory activities while leading outreach efforts to connect with both traditional and nontraditional audiences. I am committed to bringing history to life and putting it to work in the world. Congressional papers tell the political story of America at large, but every piece of legislation has real, human impact “on the ground.” It is important that we continue to inspire people to see themselves in these histories and to consider how congressional history has constructed our past and present.

 What would you like CPS to accomplish in the next 3-5 years?

In this role, I would like to encourage and support new professionals in our field while developing outreach strategies to foster greater engagement with congressional collections across the country. I believe in, and have experienced firsthand, the importance of professional organizations in pushing the field’s boundaries and helping professionals to be successful in their work. Strong leadership and support is especially vital in the archival field with many archivists working alone or in small departments. In the next 3-5 years, I would like the CPS to improve professional development resources for our members including guides for practicing archivists, a mentoring program for new professionals and minority practitioners, promotion of workshops, webinars, Twitter chats, and news from the field (CPS Strategic Plan, Goal 2 and 3). The CPS Steering Committee should also be a voice of leadership to advocate for congressional archives and archivists, recognizing the importance of diverse representation in the field, in the congressional record, and in society. Generally, I envision a more collaborative CPS. Digital exhibits and subject guides could bring together records from across the country, highlighting issues like gender, race, and LGBTQ+ in a way which promotes a culture of inclusiveness and participation while increasing the discoverability of related collections (CPS Strategic Plan, Goal 1 and Goal 4).

2. Nathan Gerth, Assistant Professor, Assistant Curator and Archivist, University of Oklahoma, Ph.D.

 What is your experience with congressional papers?

I am the assistant curator and archivist at the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center. At the Center, I manage 61 congressional collections, along with 20 other political collections. I have led the processing projects for 4 of those collections. Furthermore, I spearheaded several outreach programs at OU designed around the use of congressional papers for civic engagement, including the Local Digital History Lab (water.cacexplore.org). At the University of Oklahoma, I am also the co-founder and system administrator for ARC, a collaborative ArchivesSpace instance that houses archival descriptions from 5 repositories across campus, including the largest political advertising archive in the United States.

 What do you bring to the CPS Steering Committee?

I offer leadership, creativity, and a track record of successfully leading collaborative efforts in the congressional papers community.

 What would you like CPS to accomplish in the next 3-5 years?

In the next 3-5 years, I envision CPS as an organization that offers members an opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other well beyond the annual meeting. Specifically, I see it as a platform for efforts to leverage data from CPS member collections, in particular email and CMS/CSS data, to boost computational social science research on congressional papers.