Theodore Calvin Pease Award: Anna Robinson-Sweet

Anna Robinson-Sweet, master’s student in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College in Boston, is the 2017 recipient of the Theodore Calvin Pease Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award, established in 1987, recognizes superior writing achievements by students of archival studies, and entries are judged on innovation, scholarship, pertinence, and clarity of writing.

Robinson-Sweet’s paper, “Truth and Reconciliation: Archivists as Reparations Activists,” was nominated by Janet Ceja, assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons. Her paper reviews selected literature through an activist lens and presents three case studies in which varying degrees of activism on the part of archivists contributed to or detracted from the success of that reparations campaign. She argues that archivists should be and can be the link between activists and evidence, and that through activism archives can make their greatest impact.   

In her nomination, Ceja wrote, “The paper expresses a much needed student perspective on current discussions on archives and social justice. This work is representative of how some students are making sense of and viewing their roles as future archivists, particularly during times of great political upheaval.”

The paper will be published in The American Archivist Volume 81, Number 1 (Spring/Summer 2018).