2021 Election: Candidate Statements

Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2021 Human Rights Archives Section 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 two Steering Committee members (three-year terms).

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

The following candidates are running for the section steering committee:

Katherine Fortier

Archivist, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University Libraries

Bio: my name is Katie Fortier (she/her/hers) and I work as an Archivist at Boston University Libraries at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Resarch Center. I hold a BA in history and French from Mount Allison University and completed a MA with a concentration in labour history and archives at UMass Boston in 2015. I also hold a DAS certificate. I serve as a steward of the professional libraries union to which I belong.

Statement: I have gravitated toward working in libraries and archives specializing in civil rights, workers' rights, women's history, and sexual and reproductive health and rights for the past seven years of my archival career, and have noticed the myriad ways in which human rights are reflected (and in most cases, not reflected) in the archival record. I am deeply interested in social justice, ethical recordkeeping of human rights documentation, reparative processing and decolonizing work, and collaborative work with communities that challenges traditional archival work. I look forward to the ways in which this section might collaborate with other SAA sections to build more awareness and advocacy around the intersections between archival work and human rights.

Daniel McCormack, CA

Archivist/Records Manager, Town of Burlington, Massachusetts

Bio: Daniel McCormack has served as the archivist/records manager for the Town of Burlington, Massachusetts since 2002. He is primarily responsible for the town's public health, personnel, and municipal business records. Prior to serving in Burlington he was a reference librarian at the Brockton, Massachusetts Public Library and a journalist. A member of SAA since 1999, he previously served as the Chair of Privacy and Confidentiality Section. He served as a Steering Committee member of the Human Rights Archives Section for three years. He is currently a member of the National Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives Grant Review Committee. He has servced as a member of the Massachusetts Historical Records Advisory Board since 2013.

Statement: I am asking your support for my candidacy as a Steering Committee mamber of SAA's Human Rights Section's Steering Committee. I previously served as a member of the Steering Committee in 2017-2020. Going forward I wish to continue our progress in bringing human rights concerns to the attention of SAA and the profession in general. 

Human rights concerns transcend the divisions we experience in our lives and within the field. We serve a unifying role in addressing the direct impact of archives on the lives of individuals and groups and I believe this section must grow that role. SAA's Human Rights Section continues to take the broadest view of our role as stewards of data and guardian of the rights of individuals to recorded information. We bring togther all archivists and address matters of cultural heritage preservation, intellectual freedom, and censorship. The Human Rights Section needs to support archivists working with collections of at-risk groups, or who are working to preserve histories being threatened. At all times, I want to see the Section provide a voice to those whose history is kept silent or disregarded.

The officers and Steering Committee of the Section seek to bring a greater consciousness of the role of human rights concerns within archives. We have collaborated with other sections on these transcendent issues, and I would like to see our section continue this work. I wish to grow a greater appreciation of human rights issues within archives and among archivists. I ask for your support.