Candidate Elections 2017: HRA Section Leadership

Per the Human Rights Archives Section Rules: “The section shall be led by two co-chairs, one web liaison/newsletter editor, and at most four steering committee members. A co-chair shall be elected annually for a staggered two-year term. The web liaison/newsletter editor shall be elected for a two-year term. The steering committee members shall be elected annually for a one-year term. All officers and steering committee members may serve for an unlimited number of consecutive terms.”

Co-Chairs:  

Jeremy Brett (1 year term)- Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University

Processing Archivist

I am the Processing Archivist at Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, as well as the Curator of Cushing's Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection. I've also worked in various archival capacities at the University of Iowa, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Wisconsin Historical Society.  

For a long time now I've been very interested in the use of archives in and for social justice. The documentary record that makes up our shared history has the capacity to protect and defend our rights as well as the potential for the abuse of those rights by governments. It is our duty as citizens and archivists to maintain that record, to develop it in such a way that vulnerable communities have their history and culture, and evidence of their rights, preserved, and to work to shield that record from exploitation and misuse by those who would see rights erased. To this end I co-founded the Concerned Archivists Alliance, a group designed to bring together archivists worried about potential records and information abuses by the federal government and other bodies.  

I would love the opportunity to help with the valuable work of the Human Rights Section. 

Natasha Margulis (2 year term)- Arkansas State University

Political Collections and Access Management Archivist

My name is Natasha Margulis and I have a MA in Library and Information Sciences with a specialization in Archives and Information Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in History from the University of Cincinnati.  I currently work as the Political Collections and Access Management Archivist at Arkansas State University.  I am hoping you will nominate me as Co-Chair for the Human Rights Archives Section 

I have a PhD in Modern European History and have taught, for over nine years, courses on Nazi Germany and World War II and the Holocaust. I taught these classes predominantly with primary sources that I either found in translation or translated myself, based on the focus of the course. I have conducted research in Germany and Austria, as well in the archives of Montenegro and Kotor (shortly after the NATO bombings in the Western Balkans.  My academic background has been centered on genocide studies and I have worked on the “Balkan holocaust” of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia because I was there when they were pulling trucks full of bodies out of the Danube. Sites like Srebrenica and Goražde are equal in some ways to Babi Yar and the German death camps in Poland. Because of this, I am extremely familiar with the historiography of these fields and they are a major component of my current archival theory and research interests.  As archivist I have focused this experience into archival ethics and human rights.  I am currently participating in a course on the Holocaust taught by Yad Vashem within the framework of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure.

After earning an MLIS is Information and Library Sciences with a specialization in Archives and Information Sciences, I have a refined my professional skills in working with primary source document, oral histories, and manuscript and political collections from the archivist’s perspective.   I have worked on a project about the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s dedication to “keeping memory alive.” I have engaged in archival discussions with Brad Bauer on the museum’s appraisal acquisitions policies. I have also discussed with Radu Ioanid his efforts to bring in five to six million documents to the USHMM’s holdings. In my current position, I may be physically distanced from USHMM and Yad Vashem’s efforts, but I am currently engaged in a research project that is focused on German archivists in Nazi Germany and archival ethics as an example for today’s archivists who should be involved more than “mousers” in “deserted castles” of dusty documents. My research goes far beyond the Roberts Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, and the captured German records, and examines the role of embedded archivists in the Einsatz Reichsleiter Rosenberg forces who carried out Nazi Germany’s Ostkrieg. I also examine the role of German archivists in the denazification process and the ramifications this had for German history, archival studies, and research.  I am planning on writing an article about Ethic, Human Rights and the Archival Profession as it relates today and in the past.  I want to keep alive the belief that knowledge can keep these ethical and humanitarian violations can be averted through education and knowledge. 

I believe that my historical knowledge, my research interests and capacity, and my archival training make me unique applicant for the position of Co-Chair for the Human Rights Archives Section. I am at point in my career where I can take on a project like this because I believe in its humanitarian importance. I have also come to the realization that what I do for my job has to matter, not for my own satisfaction, but for the good of the world in some way. Since I have not taught classes in some time, I have felt my grip on bettering humanity becoming more distant and I am unsettled by this.  I feel that the opportunity to take a role in this section this will reinvigorate my passion for this cause. 

I have been an integral part of my many different committees in the past: Dean B, Ellis Institutional Repository Task Force, Arkansas State University (Present); Ben Franklin Society mentor, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (2008-2013); John Ridilla Leadership Scholarship Committee, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (2008); University Press Committee, Main Campus University of Pittsburgh Senate Committee (2007-2010); International Education Committee, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (2006-2009); DaVinci Scholars Selection Committee, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (2006-2009); Library Committee, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (2006-2008); Balkan Academic News Facebook Editor (2007-2008); Faculty Advisor to History Club, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (2007-2013).

I hope that you consider me a qualified candidate for the Co-Chair for the Human Rights Archives Section.  Because I have never led a committee before, I believe being the Co-Chair for a dedicated section like this is the best way to further become involved in the Society of American Archivists as well as a way to work towards the betterment of humanity by setting examples for other professionals to follow.

Web Liason/Newsletter Editor 

Hilary Barlow- Congregation of the Holy Ghost

Project Archivist

Hilary Barlow is a Project Archivist at Spiritans, Congregation of the Holy Ghost in Scarborough, Ontario. She completed her Master of Information degree at the University of Toronto in 2015 and worked as an Archives Intern for Democracy Now! after graduation. Hilary began her archival career as a paraprofessional at Penn State University and has since worked in archives and libraries in both the United States and Canada. 

Since December 2016, Hilary has been the Human Rights Archives Section Web Liaison and Newsletter Editor on an interim basis. She created the new HRA Section blog and is behind the newsletter in your inbox every month. She has enjoyed making new connections and learning more about the roles archives play in human rights advocacy. 

Steering Committee 

Itza A. Carbajal- University of Texas at Austin School of Information 

Student

Bio: Itza Carbajal is the daughter of Honduran parents, a native of New Orleans, and a child of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. She lives in Austin, Texas currently pursuing a Master of Science in Information Studies with a focus on archival management and digital records at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information. When studying, she really thinks about community archives, web archives, and how the digital impacts ways of remembering. Most recently, she has been fascinated with concepts of privacy in born digital archives and the role of consent in accessing these records. For more info, visit www.itzacarbajal.com

Statement of Interest: I would like to serve as a steering committee member for the Human Rights section due to my interest in privacy concerns for activists and organizers. In particular I would like to further conversations on the ongoing threat to digital privacy rights and its relationship to personal information management, digital safety practices, and ongoing state sponsored sanctions against online movement building. Lastly, I would like to contribute to the revitalization of this section as it very much touches on countless issues affecting digital records creators and future users. 

Tatiana Bryant- University of Oregon 

Digital Projects and Engagement Librarian 

Tatiana Bryant holds a MPA in International Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service in addition to a MSLIS in Information and Library Science and Advanced Certificate in Archives from Pratt Institute. She is an Institute for Research Design in Librarianship fellow and a Digital Native American and Indigenous Studies fellow. Her research interests include access to information, gender in librarianship, and library/NGO collaboration.

I am excited to submit my nomination for Steering Committee member (one year term) of the Society of American Archivists Human Rights Section. I am eager to collaborate with SAA leaders and members on issues critical to human rights archives, activism, and documentation.

Sandy Lu- http://sandylu.co

I am a recent MLIS grad with interests in human rights, design, public culture, and memory. My current research is interested in the concept of “record” and how it might be used to expand the scope of the archivist’s professional responsibilities to include activism.

In the context of this section, I’d like to explore how the archival field can better serve human rights users and, conversely, how human rights organizations might utilize the archival skillset.

I’m of the mind that archivists belong in human rights contexts. I am eager to work with my peers in the HRA Section to brainstorm ways that we might contribute our professional knowledge to activist work. I’d like to prioritize expanding participation by other SAA members, and joining forces with related SAA Sections so that we might have more productive and intersectional conversations. More importantly, I’m eager to help bring the group’s ideas to fruition¬—especially crucial in a turbulent political climate.