Candidate Statements for 2019-2021 DSGS Co-Chair

Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2019 Diverse Sexuality and Gender Section (DSGS) election. Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice.

You will be voting for:
Co-Chair, for a two-year term.

Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for the ballot! 

Candidates are listed in alphabetical order.

Anthony Wright de Hernandez
Community Collections Archivist
Inclusion & Diversity Coordinator
University Libraries, Virginia Tech

I am currently the Community Collections Archivist and Inclusion & Diversity Coordinator for the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. I work primarily to improve representation of traditionally marginalized communities within our archival collections. I also coordinate inclusion and diversity efforts within our libraries, working to make the library a more inclusive place for staff and patrons. I have an MLIS from the University of Washington iSchool and a BA in Community Studies from UMass Boston.

My work with archives has focused almost exclusively on traditionally marginalized communities with an emphasis on the LGBTQIA+ community. In my time at Virginia Tech, I have worked to expand our collections related to this community while prioritizing our relationship with local LGBTQIA+ community groups. As part of this work, I helped develop the mission & vision for our campus LGBTQ+ Resource Center and have been actively working with our LGBTQ+ Alumni Association to arrange an official LGBTQ+ reunion.

I have been involved with professional organizations as a member of various groups. I served on the name change committee for LAGAR/DSGS and am a current member of the SAA Finance Committee. I believe in taking an active role in supporting community and that includes our DSGS community. I hope to spend the next few years using my experience, skills, and knowledge to support this community as we continue to explore various topics such as inclusive archival description and the better inclusion of marginalized groups under our own umbrella.

Alana V. Varner
Project Archivist
Arizona State University Libraries - Distinctive Collections

I am currently a Project Archivist responsible for the implementation and success of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant funded project at Arizona State University that seeks to address issues of equality and erasure of historically marginalized communities. We recently began the work of digitizing and making accessible the BJ Bud Memorial Archive (Arizona’s largest collection of LGBTQ+ materials).

As an undergraduate student, I read an essay by the lesbian poet and scholar Adrienne Rich. She said “When those who have the power to name and to socially construct reality choose not to see you or hear you...when someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked in the mirror and saw nothing. It takes some strength of soul--and not just individual strength, but collective understanding--to resist this void, this non-being, into which you are thrust, and to stand up, demanding to be seen and heard.” (source). As a young queer woman I felt this as a call to action which defined my professional and goals: to ensure that those who have been erased from historical narratives will find evidence of themselves and others like them when they look for it in the archival record.

After graduation I worked at Ms. magazine and volunteered with the Mazer Lesbian Archive, I felt assured of my mission. I attended graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, where I completed dual Master’s degrees in Women’s and Gender Studies and Information Studies. In graduate school I began to understand the enormity of the challenges surrounding the inclusion of queer people both in the archives and the archival profession. One of my key realizations was that people within the archives profession need better resources and more support so that they can advocate for LGBTQ+ identities.

I am seeking the position of co-chair in SAA’s Diverse Sexuality &Gender section because I want to continue the work of promoting the history of people in the LGBTQ+ community and to shape discussions about inclusion of people with diverse and intersectional sexualities and genders.