2018 Elections

Thank you for participating in the 2018 election for the International Archival Affairs Section (IAAS). We are holding elections for two open positions:

•   Junior co-chair – Two-year term (one year as junior co-chair, and one year as senior co-chair)

•   Member-at-large – Three-year term

Please read the candidates' statements and biographical sketches below, and then vote for one candidate for each position when ballots open. Eligible members will be sent unique links to the ballots via Survey Monkey. Ballots will remain open until July 17, 2018. 

Thank you again for voting in this year’s election!

IAAS Steering Committee (Daniel Necas, Katharina Hering, Margarita Vargas-Betancourt, Susanne Belovari and Mark Peterson)

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Candidate for Junior Co-Chair: Tewodros (Teddy) Abebe

Statement of interest: I always notice the dire needs of many nations when it comes to efforts geared towards preserving their historical heritage, especially paper documents.  Severe shortages in know-how and resources expose uncountable records to irreparable damages.  The loss of one nation’s historical record is a loss to all humanity.  I believe IAAS and its members can play a key role in filling some of the void in this regard.  Sharing information and experiences with those in needy places is a small, yet critical, step.  In the near future, I envision IAAS becoming an important voice for the promotion and empowerment of effective, collaborative archival work across the globe.

Biography: Tewodros Abebe was born and raised in Ethiopia.  He attended primary and secondary schools in Addis Ababa and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in the United States.  Tewodros joined the staff at Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center in 2001 as Assistant Archivist.  He was promoted to the Senior Archivist position in 2013.  Among other duties, Tewodros assists in developing and implementing policies and procedures for the administration of archival records.  His work provides him with the opportunity to interact with University and local communities along with researchers from around the world.

Tewodros is a bilingual who is fluent in English and Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. He utilizes both languages to compose expressive pieces in verse and prose.  His short comments, for example, have been published in the print editions of The Economist and The Washington Post; the latter has carried over a dozen of Tewodros's letters on its editorial pages.  The comments focused on issues ranging from personal names to global politics.  Tewodros’s Amharic poetry and essays have appeared in various publications targeting Ethiopian audiences.  He is an author whose collection of Amharic poetry has received outstanding reviews from readers and notable Ethiopian writers. 

Candidate for Member-at-large: Brad Bauer

Statement of interest:  From the time when I first began attending SAA meetings, I have also been attending meetings of the predecessor to the IAAS, what was then known at the International Archival Affairs Roundtable, as I was interested in developments in our profession that were taking place outside of the borders of the United States and wanted to see SAA engage more with our international colleagues.    When the opportunity arose to serve on the ad-hoc committee to create a more formal steering committee for IAART in 2012, in response to changes in section and round table governance within SAA, I volunteered, and also served as the first senior co-chair on that committee, for a one-year term.  Having observed the activities of the IAART, and then the IAAS, during these past several years, as well as now being an archivist who is working outside of the United States, I would be pleased to have the opportunity to serve once again on the committee, this time as a member-at-large.  

During the past couple of decades, the IAAS and IAART have been many things to many people.  The group has been a welcoming venue for international archivists visiting the United States and attending the SAA conference.  It has been a place to exchange information and share experiences about projects, events, and activities in archival repositories or organizations overseas, including connections with ICA.  Regular newsletter updates throughout the year have been a valuable resource for sharing information about international archival issues.  Some attendees have joined the group, hopeful of learning about opportunities to pursue work as archivists abroad.  The group has also helped launch learning and service projects overseas, such as those of the Itinerant Archivists.  But given the limits on time, energy and resources of a volunteer organization made up of full-time archivists, it is also important to step back and analyze what the needs of our members are, and where the IAAS can most effectively meet those needs.  I would be interested in helping the committee look at this question, as well as explore further opportunities to engage with the world of archives beyond our borders, and how we, as SAA members, can also be good “world-citizens.”  

Biography:  Since August 2017, I have been serving as Librarian for Archives and Special Collections and University Archivist at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), in the United Arab Emirates.  As part of NYU’s global network, the NYUAD campus seeks to leverage its location at a geographic and cultural crossroads on the Arabian Peninsula to build a truly international community of students and scholars, and its archives and special collections, in turn, are being built as a reflection of that.  Prior to joining NYUAD, I served as chief archivist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2011-2017), as Western European curator and archivist for collection development at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University (2003-2011), and at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library (NARA), in Iowa, among other positions.  I have a BA in history from California State University, Fullerton, an MLIS degree from UCLA, and an MA in Liberal Arts from Stanford University.  In addition to having served on the IAART previously, I have also served in SAA on the steering committee of the Acquisition and Appraisal section for five years (2007-2012) and have served on the boards of the Midwest Archives Conference (2001-2003) and the Society of California Archivists, in the latter of which I served a term as president (2010-2013).  I am also a current member of the International Council on Archives.

Candidate for Member-at-large: Susanne Belovari

Statement of interest: The International Archival Affairs Section (IAAS) of the Society of American Archivists is our main professional avenue to discuss international archival issues and how these may or should influence our work. We have all benefitted from the IAAS meetings, its blog, listserve, and projects, and I would like to help continue with its planning and organizational efforts. I can offer my professional experiences working in the US and other countries as well as my international viewpoints based on my Austrian background and years serving on the board of the international Section of University and Research Institution Archives (ICA-SUV) 2006-2014, 2016-current.

Among the many archival challenges we face at US academic archives, international issues play an important role, such as WIPO and copyright questions, international cooperation regarding digital preservation and human rights archives, sharing skills and knowledge across national borders to improve work and services, and the necessity to make our finding aids and sometimes collections internationally accessible (largely online) in an understandable, correct (foreign languages), and easy manner given a networked globe and its global user communities.

Biography: Originally from Austria, Susanne Belovari is the Archivist for Faculty Papers and Assistant Professor at the University Archives, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Susanne has worked in archives on several continents and been active in international archival programs and organizations for almost two decades. Within the US, she has served on the Steering Committee of the SAA International Archival Affairs Section for the last three years. Internationally, she has been on the board of the International Council on Archives – Section of University and Research Institution Archives from 2006-2014 and again from 2016 to 2020, where she developed ICA-SUV’s Who’s Who in Archives Globally and its new newsletter, served as their editor since their inception, contributed to several guidelines and policy documents, and  chaired Programme and Review committees of ICA-SUV conference in 2014 and 2017,

She has presented at regional, national, and international conferences on international archival and digital or web issues, the history of archives and archivists as cultural agents, food and culinary history before and under National Socialism, and processing ‘archives under siege’ among other topics and has published numerous articles on these topics. Her academic background is in Latin American Studies, gender and international “development,” the history of colonialism, science, and scientific representations of indigenous peoples, and she holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana.