Events

FAIRly Obscure: An Edit-a-thon Exploring Anthropology, Communities, and Wikipedia Representation

Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC/FAIRly_Obscure_Anthropology_Edit-a-thon

Presented by:
The University of Maryland Center for Archival Futures, the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution; George Washington University’s Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology; The Bentley Historical Library and University of Michigan School of Information; the University of Missouri’s College of Information Studies; and the Council for the Preservation of Anthropological Records (CoPAR), and Wikimedia DC.

Event description
Are you interested in the history of anthropology? In archival description, outreach, and linked data? In FAIR and CARE principles for social science and scientific information? Join a co-sponsored edit-a-thon event to support the ethical description of anthropological knowledge and anthropological records focused on reworking and expanding related Wikipedia and Wikidata entries. This edit-a-thon will focus on editing, adding, and checking information on these publicly available and publicly maintained databases relating to anthropologists and anthropology. Interested audience may include community members, anthropologists, graduate students in anthropology, graduate students in information science, linked data nerds, and others!

No Wikipedia editing experience necessary. Opening ceremonial event will begin at 11:30am. Training will be provided, taking place 12pm to 1:00pm (Eastern time). Open editing time will run from 1:00pm to 4:00pm (Eastern time). At 2:30pm we will have a Wikidata demo. If you’ve never edited before, please plan to attend the training session.

December 4th: “Open House: Exploring the Tugwell Collection”

Abstract:
Explore the Tugwell Collection with Community Archives seminar students featuring highlights and tours of the Tugwell Collection. Light refreshments will be provided. This program is presented in collaboration with University of Maryland College of Information (INFO) and Center for Archival Futures (CAFe). Refreshments for this program are provided by the Friends of the Greenbelt Library.

December 4th: “Centering Community and Care in Rapid Response Research”

Anna Kijas, Assistant Director of Digital Scholarship, Head of the Lilly Music Library, Tufts University

Abstract:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 was a wake-up call for cultural heritage professionals worldwide. For several decades, cultural institutions have engaged in digitization of cultural artifacts, in light of the invasion, however, it became clear that the servers on which these digital objects are stored are as vulnerable as the buildings which house the analog originals. Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) is a global grassroots initiative of more than 1,500 volunteers which formed as a response to the invasion to support the digital preservation of Ukrainian cultural heritage. SUCHO began as an emergency web-archiving effort, preserving more than 50TB of cultural data from over 5,000 websites of Ukrainian museums, libraries, and archives.

In this talk, Anna Kijas, co-founder of SUCHO, will share the story of SUCHO and explore how this initiative drew together a community of activists with a shared vision of ensuring that digitized and born-digital cultural heritage is pre-emptively protected in the future. She will focus on how SUCHO centered community and care, promoted collaboration, and developed relationships with Ukrainian institutions and cultural heritage professionals. Much as World War II laid the groundwork for robust cultural heritage protection organizations that still operate today, the global cultural heritage community can learn from the invasion of Ukraine to plan for a more resilient future for digital cultural heritage protection that centers concepts of community and care.

Bio:
Anna Kijas is Assistant Director of Digital Scholarship and Head of the Lilly Music Library at Tufts University. She is a co-founder of Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO), an initiative focused on safeguarding and preserving the digital cultural heritage of Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Her research interests include exploring the affordances and application of digital humanities tools and methods in historical (music) research, the application of standards, including TEI and MEI, for open access research and publishing, and the use of minimal computing. Anna also researches and writes about nineteenth century music topics with a focus on gender, women, and performance criticism and reception. Her publications include a book entitled The Life and Music of Teresa Carreño (1853-1917): A Guide to Research, and open-access projects, including Documenting Teresa Carreño centered around Carreño’s performance career (1863-1917) and Rebalancing the Music Canon that aims to make musical works by historically marginalized and un(der)-represented people more discoverable, decenter the musical canon, and make data-driven music scholarship more diverse and inclusive. Anna is currently the Administrative Chair of the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) and during 2019-2023 she served as an Executive Council Representative of the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH). Her work and contributions have been recognized with awards including the A. Ralph Papakhian Special Achievement Award (MLA), European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award 2023, Society of American Archivists Council Resolution, Walter Gerboth Award (MLA), as well as intramural awards and grants.

November 6th: “Community Archives: Empowering Voices and Preserving Heritage”

Corey Lewis, Assistant State Archivist, Maryland State Archives

Abstract:
Community archives are crucial in preserving diverse groups’ cultural heritage and collective memory. Corey Lewis, the Maryland Assistant State Archivist, has been a driving force in these efforts for the past twenty years. His expertise in archival practices, digitization, and community engagement has significantly impacted the field. His work with the Community Archives Initiatives has been particularly noteworthy, focusing on democratizing access to historical records, empowering underrepresented communities to tell their stories, and fostering a sense of identity and continuity.

On this month’s first Wednesday of the CAFe series, Corey Lewis will share his experiences and insights on community-centered archival practices. He will explore how integrating traditional archival methods with modern digital technologies can create innovative approaches to safeguarding the past while making it accessible to future generations. Corey will discuss the importance of inclusive, participatory archives and highlight how these efforts can reflect the rich, multifaceted history of Maryland’s diverse communities. This event is a unique opportunity to learn more about the lasting impact of community archives on the preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage.

Bio:
Corey A. Lewis is a distinguished leader in archiving and currently serves as the Assistant State Archivist at the Maryland State Archives. In his role, Corey oversees the information, appraisal, and digitization operations while acting as a liaison for information technology. Since joining the archives in 1999, Corey has gained extensive experience in imaging and digitization. His deep knowledge and expertise have been instrumental in advancing the technological capabilities of the archives, particularly in digitization operations and the development of electronic archives. Throughout his career, Corey has championed initiatives focused on enhancing access, improving efficiency, and fostering partnerships. His leadership has recently enabled the Maryland State Archives to collaborate successfully on several projects with community archives. Corey’s dedication to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility was recognized last year when he received the Gertrude Makell Award for Programming. This year, he has been honored with the Victoria Walch Irons Emerging Leader Award from the Council of State Archivists, further acknowledging his outstanding contributions to the archival profession.

October 11th: “Citizen DJ Remix-a-thon”

Abstract:
The Center for Archival Futures (CAFe) invites you to participate in a Remix-a-thon featuring the Library of Congress’s Citizen DJ project. Citizen DJ is a groundbreaking initiative that allows the public to explore and remix thousands of free-to-use sound recordings from the Library’s vast audiovisual collections. In this hands-on event, project creator Brian Foo will discuss the creative potential of the project and guide participants through the process of remixing and creating new works using the platform. Whether you choose to work individually or collaboratively, this event offers a unique opportunity to engage with historical sounds and generate original material. No prior experience is required—just bring your creativity! (And a laptop and headphones if you’ve got ‘em.)

Bio:
Brian Foo is an artist and computer scientist based in Washington, DC. His work focuses on making public resources like audiovisual collections, scientific datasets, and cultural objects more accessible and remixable through visualization, sonification, and play. He openly shares his creative and technical processes, along with tools for others to use and adapt. He is currently a Senior Innovation Technologist at the Library of Congress’s Digital Innovation Division, where he explores innovative uses of the Library’s content and services.

Jaime Mears is a senior innovation specialist for the Library of Congress Labs, where she supports research and experiments to better connect the Library to all Americans. She leads the Innovator in Residence program, a creative research residency for technologists and artists. In her previous role as a national digital stewardship resident, Jaime created the Memory Lab at DC Public Library, now an IMLS-funded national program to support personal archiving at public libraries. Jaime holds a master’s in library science from the University of Maryland iSchool.

October 2nd: “From Collections to Connections: Centering Belonging in Archival Futures”

Trevor Owens, Chief Research Officer, American Institute of Physics

Abstract:
Library and archives professionals often take collection centered mindsets to our work. Drawing on experience from two decades of work in digital history and cultural memory, Owens will discuss approaches to work with collections that cultivate and support personal connections and belonging. This will include discussion of key points from his recently published book After Disruption: A Future for Cultural Memory, in dialog with practical examples from his work as at the Library of Congress and the American Institute of Physics. He will show how ongoing work in libraries and archives can function as a context for action research to advance both theory and practice for how work with special collections can advance efforts in communities for equity, justice, and sustainability.

Bio:
Dr. Trevor Owens is a social scientist, historian, librarian, and archivist working to deepen the positive impact of mission driven organizations on society through humanities and social science research. Owens serves as the first Chief Research Officer of the American Institute of Physics. In this role, he is charged with implementing and leading AIP’s new operational unit, AIP Research. This new interdisciplinary research-driven center of excellence brings together teams of librarians, archivists, historians, and social scientists to execute a research strategy and agenda focused on the interplay of the physical sciences, relevant public policy, and disciplinary cultures, with the goal of empowering positive change in the physical sciences enterprise. Owens previously worked as the Director of Digital Services at the Library of Congress and as a Senior Program Officer and Associate Deputy Director for Libraries at the United States Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Owens is the author of four books, the most recent of which, After Disruption: A Future for Cultural Memory was published by University of Michigan Press in Spring of 2024. His previous book, The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2018 and has won outstanding publication awards from both the American Library Association and the Society of American Archivists. His research and writing have been featured in: Curator: The Museum Journal, Digital Humanities Quarterly, Science Communication, New Directions in Folklore, and American Libraries.

September 18th: “Archiving the Crisis: What urgency should archivists feel regarding living archives of state-sponsored violence?”

Doran Larson, Edward North Professor of Literature, Hamilton College

Abstract:
Archives commonly address the sustainable physical holding, digitization, and other ways of creating lasting, accessible repositories of documentation of past and concluded events, albeit often ones with continuing contemporary relevance (e.g. the Tulsa Race Riot).

The American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) is a growing archive of nearly 4,000 non-fiction essays and poems by people currently incarcerated in the U.S. and since 2009. Fully searchable by author demographics, states, and key words, the APWA receives between 40-100 new written testimonials to prison conditions and experience each month.

This talk, by the APWA’s founder and current co-director, will address the stakes and potential of the APWA (and like projects) and the urgency of seeing acts of witness to current instances of state-sponsored violence, neglect, gross incompetence, and willful deprivation brought into public venues in a timely fashion. Fully aware of the hazards for both the witnesses and for their facilitators, and with sharp attention to the need for ethical, non-extractive protocols and practices, this paper will argue that the urgency to respond to first-person witness’s aspirations to get their work before the public should not be less than what we might expect from outlets and platforms for those serving first-person witnesses to active war zones—witnesses, that is, who write from desperation both in their current conditions and in their need to move public opinion, direct action, and intervention in ongoing (criminal) abuse and neglect.

The talk will cover the history of the APWA, its potential to move hearts and minds, and—due to this potential—the need to see prison witness disseminated both carefully and expeditiously.

Bio:
Doran Larson is Edward North Professor of Literature at Hamilton College. He led a writing workshop inside Attica Correctional Facility from 2006 to 2016. He is the founding organizer of the AA-degree granting Attica-Genesee Teaching Project, and of the award-winning AA-degree granting Hamilton-Herkimer College College-in-Prison Program at Mohawk and Mid-State Correctional Facilities. He is the author of Witness in the Era of Mass Incarceration: Discovering the Ethical Prison (2017). He is the editor of Fourth City: Essays from the Prison in America (2014), the largest print collection to date of non-fiction essays by currently incarcerated people writing about their experience inside. He founded and now co-directs The American Prison Writing Archive, a Mellon-funded and fully searchable digital archive of over five million words of first-person prison witness. His new book, Inside Knowledge: Incarcerated People on the Failures of the American Prison, was published by NYU Press in January.

September 4th: Fall Faculty Research Showcase

Description: Join us for our Fall Faculty Research Showcase! Watch faculty present exciting updates on their ongoing projects. Get a chance to see current research initiatives developing innovative approaches and emerging trends. Swing by for a chance to connect over common interests!

May 1st: “Imagining Decolonial Archival Futures”

Krista McCracken (Left), Award-winning public historian and Archivist
Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey  (Right), Historian, Author, and Research Analyst

Abstract:
Drawing on their recent book, Decolonial Archival Futures, Hogan-Stacey and McCracken will discuss unsettling Western archival practices within Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. This presentation highlights the transformative potential of decolonization within archival practices through practical examples, with an emphasis on envisioning decolonial possibilities that are Indigenous-led and community-driven. Drawing on their personal experiences, the speakers will highlight the complexities of challenging colonial narratives embedded in archival processes. Through critical analysis and practical examples, McCracken and Hogan-Stacey share insights into incorporating Indigenous perspectives, methodologies, and voices in archival work.

Bios:

Krista McCracken: Krista McCracken is an award-winning public historian and archivist. They work as a Researchers/Curator at Algoma University’s Arthur A. Wishart Library and Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, in Baawating (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Métis people. Krista’s research focuses on community archives, Residential Schools, access, and outreach. In 2020, they won the Best Article in Indigenous History prize awarded by the Canadian Historical Association’s Indigenous History Group for their article “Challenging Colonial Spaces: Reconciliation and Decolonizing Work in Canada’s Archives.”

Skylee-Storm: Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey is a historian, author, and research analyst currently living and working on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabek in Ottawa, Ontario. A descendant of the Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke, Skylee-Storm has explored community archival practices, Indigenous archival access, Residential School history, Indigenous-Crown legal history, and oral history. Since 2019, Skylee-Storm has worked with Know History Historical Services as a research historian in their Ottawa office.Skylee-Storm began their work unpacking and understanding Indigenous archivy when they joined the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre in 2015. She has remained a collaborator with the Centre on projects related to community archives and site history. Skylee-Storm completed a rewrite of the Ontario Provincial Heritage Program plaque for Shingwauk Hall in 2022. After working with the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, Skylee-Storm has become an advocate for critiquing archival power dynamics and settler Canadian historical narratives. Their forthcoming book with Krista McCracken, Decolonial Archival Futures, continues this work.Skylee-Storm is currently on an interchange assignment with the office of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools, as a policy analyst focused on archives and Indigenous data sovereignty.

April 10th: “Equity in public access to research result: Case study from National Agriculture Library”

Jwan Khisro, postdoctoral researcher, College of Information Studies, University of Maryland.

Abstract:
There is a need for a better understanding of equity perspective in public access to research results, accelerates discovery, promotes collaboration, fosters public trust and innovation, and provides opportunities for all to participate in research. It is vital to ensure that science and research benefit everyone. Answering the call from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to ensure Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research. Equity in public access to research results is the subject of this study and is currently in development by a collaborative team based at the University of Maryland, College Park. Therefore, this study aims to improve understanding of equitable access to federally funded research results. By enquiring the following research question: how federally funded research results can be equitably accessible to the public. The study employs a qualitative approach with an interpretative case study method.

Bio:
Jwan Khisro is a postdoctoral researcher at the College of Information Studies, University of Maryland. The primary goal of Jwan’s postdoctoral research is to contribute to and advance digital government practices and policies research agenda by focusing on two research areas 1) Equity perspective in public access to research results and 2) AI in digital government. Jwan conducts her research and collaborates with the USDA, and National Agricultural Library on implementing federal, agency, and departmental policies related to public access to federally funded research. She earned her PhD in informatics at the Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg, Sweden 2022. She also earned a Licentiate degree in informatics at the Department of Information Systems and Technology (IST), Mid Sweden University 2019 following a master’s degree in informatics, University of Gothenburg, 2013. Jwan’s research focuses on multidisciplinary fields studying the Constraints of digital transformation in the public sector from various perspectives such as IT Governance, investment budget, and digital infrastructure. Jwan’s work has appeared in academic journals such as the Enterprise Information Systems Journal and the Transforming Government: People, Process, and Policy. She regularly presents her research at top information systems conferences including AMCIS, EGOV, and HICSS.

March 6th: “The Ambivalences of the Unfixed”

Jamie A. Lee, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Associate Professor Digital Culture, Information, and Society at the School of Information, University of Arizona

Abstract:
Shifting archival approaches from “product to process” and “record to people” require radical inquiries into the archival practices of description and the expediency of such labor, especially in the digitally-mediated realm of virtual repositories. I consider stereotypes and the ways they function to fix notions of personhood in archival contexts and make expediency even possible. Moving from assumptions of fixity, I will explore the ambivalence of the un-fixed and the unfixable in the digital realm. Considering archives — both physical and digital — then, as fixed materials holds people and their shifting identities captive through their own archival records. Rather than the assumed certainties that stereotypes can inspire and that fixed archival records seemingly confirm, I look to the role of archival ambivalence in making room for complex personhood in the re-imagining description practices through digital archives. Centering the P. Carl Transitional Eyewear eyeglass collection (28 pairs of glasses that span over three decades) as a distinct site for interrogating the paradoxical notion of fixity, I challenge the concept and practice of stereotype through their own (un)becoming subjectivities. In considering the shifting subject that comes into view with each new pair of eyeglasses, Avery Gordon’s concept of complex personhood is elucidated as a theoretical statement that animates archival understandings of people as living complicated, dynamic lives that cannot be captured and viewed as forever fixed and unchanging. Through engaging the potentials of digitality, I will explore complex personhood as a creative tool to address the complicated and complex cultural imaginings, affective experiences, multi-perspectival voices, and animated and embodied objects that trace power’s presence in the archives. This presentation is meant as a playful unsettling through the ambivalences that a focus on the unfixed reveals.

Bio:
Jamie A. Lee is Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Associate Professor Digital Culture, Information, and Society at the School of Information, University of Arizona. They are scholar, activist, filmmaker, archivist, and oral historian. They founded and direct the Arizona Queer Archives where they train community members on facilitating oral history interviews and building collections in and with their own communities. With storytelling at the heart of their life’s work, Lee also directs the Digital Storytelling & Oral History Lab and co-founded the Critical Archives and Curation Collaborative, the co/lab, through which they collaborate on such storytelling projects as secrets of the agave: a Climate Justice Storytelling Project, and the Climate Alliance Mapping Project, CAMP. Lee’s 2021 book, Producing the Archival Body, engages storytelling to re-consider how archives are defined, understood, deployed, and accessed to produce subjects. Arguing that archives and bodies are mutually constitutive and developing a keen focus on the body and embodiment alongside archival theory, Lee introduces new understandings of archival bodies that interrogate how power circulates in archival contexts in order to build critical understandings of how deeply archives shape the production of knowledges and human subjectivities. For more on Lee’s projects, visit www.thestorytellinglab.io.

February 7th: “The Hermeneutics of Data Management Plans: Open Science Policy in the United States“

Megan Finn, Associate Professor, American University, Communication Studies, Washington DC

Abstract:
The United States’ science data policy has landed in a weird place. Data management plans are now required on federal grants – this is the most significant recent open science data law in the US. There are several reasons given in various administrative rules for more access to and transparency around research data including equity, research replicability, projecting the superiority of American science, ensuring the return on investment to taxpayers, incentivizing better research data management, legitimizing a future for data science and data-driven research, and enhancing the quality of science. Some of these justifications are contradictory and none of these justifications make it obvious that data management plans would be the best mechanism for ensuring science data transparency in federally funded research. This paper asks, how did the US end up with “data management plans” as a requirement? And, if we take data management plans seriously, what do these plans tell us about the future of science data? I will first examine data management plan requirements for science researchers in the US (particularly the National Science Foundation). Next, I will look at what the data management plans themselves say, drawing from my research team’s corpus of nearly 1000 data management plans from funded projects. I will offer different approaches to reading data management plans: as scientific furniture, as instruments for accessing funding, as evidence of the neoliberalization of science, as a process document for scientific knowledge production and institutional coordination, as a fantasy document, as instructions for the future, aligning temporalities, and as part of the institutionalization of data-oriented science. By sharing findings about the purposes and premises of planning for data management we argue they are an important vehicle for the project of open science.

Bio:
I have a number of research projects which are historical and contemporary empirical studies of responsible computing and data governance. My work examines relations among policies, infrastructures, and practices in the production, circulation, and use of data and information. I examine these themes in a book, called Documenting Aftermath: Information Infrastructures in the Wake of Disasters, with MIT Press (October 2018). The book is an examination of how changing public information infrastructures shaped people’s experience of earthquakes in Northern California in 1868, 1906, and 1989 followed by an analysis of the institutions, policies, and technologies that shape today’s postdisaster information landscape. I argue that information orders—complex constellations of institutions, technologies, and practices—influence how we act in, experience, and document events. What I term event epistemologies, constituted both by historical documents and by researchers who study them, explain how information orders facilitate particular possibilities for knowledge.

Before moving to SOC at AU, I was a professor at University of Washington’s Information School. I was a faculty member of the DataLab at the INFO College, and an affiliate of the UW’s eScience Institute, where, as a part of the Data Science Studies group, I co-convened a talk series, “Data Then and Now” from 2019-2021. I was an advisor with my university’s Science, Technology and Society Studies (STSS) program where I have been lucky enough to advise incredible students from Forestry, Law, and Urban Planning. I was lucky enough to supervise Meg Young, now a researcher at Data and Society.

In 2022-2023 I was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society and Stanford’s Department of Communication and HAI. In 2021-22 I was a Lenore Annenberg and Wallis Annenberg Fellowship in Communication at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. From 2012-2014 I spent two wonderful years as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, MA with the Social Media Research Group.

February 14th: Douglass Day

Douglass Day is an international hybrid event hosted and streamed by Penn State University each year on February 14th, Douglass’ chosen birthday, to celebrate Black history through a transcribe-a-thon and birthday cake bake-off. CAFe is partnering with the Driskell Center, STAMP, BCaT Lab, and scholars in the Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at UMD to host a Douglass Day transcribathon event with food and fun on February 14th. Show off your baking skills by bringing a birthday cake to share.

On Douglass Day, participants will learn how to transcribe handwritten items in the general correspondence of Frederick Douglass. These papers are held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and have been made digitally available for transcription through the By the People virtual volunteering project. Comprised of 8,731 pages, this collection provides insight into Douglass’ social and political life through his exchanges with family, friends, activists, politicians, and others between 1841 and 1912. Transcribing these materials ensures resources on specific people and events are made more robust, and thus more discoverable and accessible; it also brings those who are interested in history together to learn more about a common theme. These letters will provide rich insight into the life and work of Frederick Douglass that are not yet widely accessible.

December 6th: “Supporting Community-led Digitization of At-Risk Cultural Heritage in Iraq”

Helena Arose (Left) , Director of Programs at the Antiquities Coalition
Peter Herdrich (Right), Co-founder of the Antiquities Coalition

Abstract:
From first-hand experience of an active case-study of digitizing at-risk libraries and heritage collections with communities in Iraq, Helena and Peter will discuss opportunities, challenges and best practices for establishing community-led digitization projects, as well as lessons learned about the wider benefits of digitization and cultural heritage protection in Iraq.

Bio:
Helena Arose
Helena Arose serves as the Director of Programs at the Antiquities Coalition. In this role, she closely collaborates with representatives from the U.S. and international governments, law enforcement agencies, international partners, academics, and other key stakeholder groups to develop and implement programs to fight the illicit trade in ancient art and antiquities.

Helena plays a critical role in advancing the AC’s mission by leading key research projects and publications, and also developing and managing popular online educational resources including interactive maps, timelines, and campaigns. She has organized and coordinated both in-person and virtual programs with world-renowned experts on topics pertaining to antiquities and cultural heritage. In addition, she helps edit and publish the Antiquities Coalition’s award-winning Think Tank Policy Brief series.

Helena conducts in-depth research on antiquities looting and trafficking, cultural heritage diplomacy and protection, and financial crimes and the art market. In addition, she has authored several publications for the AC and academic outlets. She also serves as an expert on topics related to cultural racketeering, speaking widely on these issues for academic, government, and general audiences.

Prior to this role, Helena served as Research Associate and Project Director at the AC. Before joining the organization, Helena worked as a Collections Specialist for the City of Raleigh Historic Resources and Museum Program, where she gained experience working in museums and collections.

Helena graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2018 with a MSc in Art History: Collecting and Provenance in an International Context. An archaeologist by training, she holds a BA in Archaeology from Johns Hopkins University, and has participated in archaeological excavations in Athienou, Cyprus, and in North Carolina.

Peter Herdrich
Peter Herdrich is the Co-founder of the Antiquities Coalition (AC), where he directs strategic digital cultural heritage projects. He currently works with religious minority communities in Iraq on digitization of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, digital infrastructure, and education. His partners include his project Co-director Helena Arose of the Antiquities Coalition, Britney Bibeault, the AC’s first Digital Cultural Heritage Fellow and University of Maryland College of Information PhD student, and the University of Maryland College of Information Assistant Professor Victoria Van Hyning. Their work is funded by the Unites States Agency for International Development.

Herdrich also directs projects with the Algerian Ministry of Culture and Arts. These include an on-going three-year project with the AC, the Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation, and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) on digital infrastructure and anti-looting efforts. Also, with the CLIR team, he built the first functional digital library in Iraq at the Kurdish Heritage Institute in Sulaymaniyah, conducted an emergency digitization and documentation project at the National Museum in Aden, Yemen, and initiated the Digital Library of the Middle East project with Dr. Charles Henry. He sincerely thanks all the generous funders, supporters, and partners who have made this work possible.

As the Chief Executive Officer of the Cultural Capital Group, he consults with clients across the cultural heritage, communications, and library sectors. He formerly served as CEO of the Archaeological Institute of America and publisher of Archeology magazine and is a graduate of Columbia University.

November 30th: “The Alonzo Davis Papers”

Alonzo Davis, Artist, gallery owner, professor, and activist

The Alonzo Davis Collection documents the career of artist, gallery owner, professor, and activist Alonzo Davis (b.1942). Join us to celebrate research and a virtual exhibition by students from the University of Maryland’s I-School.
Presentations will be followed by a reception at 7:00pm.

November 16th: “Exploring Zines: Perspectives in Zine Creating, Collecting, and Education”

Loren Mixion, Academic Engagement and Outreach Librarian at Coastal Carolina University

Lisa Warwick, Manager of The People’s Archive at DC Public Library

Sharaya Olmeda, Reference librarian and zine maker at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California

Britt Starr, PhD graduate from the University of Maryland

Abstract:
Zines, fanzines, and minicomics are fun and fascinating objects that come in many forms and express diverse ideas to a bigger audience. They can communicate everything from a love for a band to advocating for radical political and social change. Zines are a diverse form of artistic expression, passion, fandom, education, and resistance. Today, you can purchase zines in local bookstores and record shops, find them online, or find them in public spaces. They are also objects that are fascinating for librarians and archivists to collect, preserve, and digitize.

In this panel discussion, we will be hearing from four cultural heritage practitioners, educators, and creators on the opportunities and difficulties of working with zines. Our panelists will share insights into their work with zines and their thoughts on zines as objects of artistic and cultural heritage importance. The panel event will include a live demonstration of creating a simple zine (bring some paper and your favorite pair of scissors!), a moderated panel discussion, and a Q&A session with our panelists.

Bio:
Loren Mixon
Loren Mixon is the Academic Engagement and Outreach Librarian at Coastal Carolina University. Prior to joining librarianship, they were a high school educator. Throughout their career, their focus has been on connection with others and relationship and community building. Their research interest are feminist pedagogy, librarian labor, and critical librarianship.

Lisa Warwick
Lisa Warwick is the Manager of The People’s Archive at DC Public Library. Lisa worked in academic and specialty research libraries, including the University of Maryland and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, before coming to the DC Public Library in 2013. Managing The People’s Archive combines her love of old paper smell with serving the public. Lisa’s professional passion is making information easily accessible to users.

She holds her M.A. in Information Science from the University of Maryland and a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, biking, and reading at home with her cat, Bruce.

Sharaya Olmeda
Sharaya Olmeda is a reference librarian and zine maker at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with her Master in Library Information Science degree from San Jose State University. Sharaya began her career in librarianship at the California Men’s Colony State Prison, where she worked as a Senior Librarian until 2023. In 2021, as a means to improve access and services in carceral libraries, Sharaya joined the ALA Standards for Library Services for the Incarcerated or Detained Work Group where she chaired the Drafting committee and served as a Project Manager; responsible for leading a complete revision of the Standards, which will be published in 2024. Sharaya teaches Prison Library Services at Cuesta College and is currently a Counselor at Large, Planning and Budget committee member, and LGBTQ Taskforce member with the American Library Association where she was elected to serve until 2025. She has created and led zine workshops about mental health and is passionate about making space for underrepresented voices and experiences.

Britt Starr
Dr. Britt Starr (she/her) is a recent graduate from the University of Maryland with a PhD in rhetoric and graduate certificates in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and digital studies. During her doctorate, Britt helped build the English department’s BookLab, a makerspace, letterpress printing studio, library, and center for the book arts. As a graduate assistant with BookLab, Britt founded “ZineClub” to share the personally and politically transformative medium of zines in monthly, informal gatherings open to the UMD community and beyond. Britt has regularly incorporated zines and zine-making in her pedagogy and is currently teaching rhetoric and composition at Baltimore City Community College.

November 1st: “Subject Analysis: Centering Historical Lives in Contemporary Archives”

Dorothy Berry, Inaugural Digital Curator,  The National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Abstract:
At the surface level, at the very least, the archival profession has moved towards an increased focus on marginalized and otherwise ignored voices within special collections. The excitement around this move has often focused on amorphous “community” engagement and “reparative description,” but with far less clarity on who compromises relevant communities and who created the initial description in need of repair.

This talk will explore ideas around centering the voices and experiences of the archival subjects in historical collections, particularly those marginalized subjects who have no contemporary community. There are a variety of instances in the profession where there are multiple right answers, and this talk makes no claim on absolutism. Through a combination of historical research and working experience, this talk will open discussion on how and who archives serve.

Bio:
Dorothy Berry is the inaugural Digital Curator for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. A Library Journal “Mover and Shaker” and winner of the Mark A. Greene “Emerging Leader” award from the Society of American Archivists, Berry has established a reputation as a leading thinker around the discoverability of Black special collections. Berry’s work has primarily approached the question of discoverability through the lens of archival description, digital collection development, and digital storytelling. Berry is an active member of the profession, serving on advisory boards for projects as wide-ranging as The Wheatley Census, designed to provide a bibliographic map of Phillis Wheatley-Peters first publication, and Archiving the Black Web, designed to put the power of digital preservation in the hands of Black creators. Beyond digital collections and projects developed at various institutions, her published work can be found in up//root, Lapham’s Quarterly, JSTOR Daily, and The Public Domain Review, where she is a contributing editor.

September 20th : “10 Ways AI Will Change Archives”

Ben Brumfield (Left), Co-founder and Director of From The Page
Sara Brumfield (Right), Co-founder and Director of From The Page

Abstract:

AI is here, but how it will change archives and the work of archivists is still unclear.

• The many ways AI will make your texts more accessible
• How AI will be used for describing and recommending items
• How that accessibility & detailed description will demand better and more nuanced search
• New ways to interact with archival collections, from conversational search bots to easier analysis of historical data sets.

Your speakers are the creators of FromThePage, a crowdsourcing & collaboration platform for transcription and metadata enhancement. Enthusiastic technologists, they have been exploring and experimenting with AI for years, but even more over the last year.

Bio:
Sara Brumfield is a partner at FromThePage, where she builds software and helps state and national archives, research groups, public libraries, and universities run crowdsourcing projects. Prior to FromThePage, Sara spent 17 years as a software engineer with IBM. She led development and support teams focused on system and network management products, serving as a focal point for large enterprise customers. She holds eight technical patents. She has a BA in Computer Science and the Study of Women and Gender from Rice University.

Ben Brumfield founded the cultural heritage crowdsourcing platform FromThePage in 2005 and has been covering developments within crowdsourced manuscript transcription since 2007. Over the past decade, FromThePage has been used by libraries, archives, and museums to transcribe material ranging from Arabic scientific manuscripts to Aztec codices. Prior to FromThePage, he spent eleven years leading software development teams building fundraising and constituent engagement solutions for non-profit clients at Convio, Inc. He has presented on the intersection of technology, crowd-sourcing, and digital editions at the American Historical Association, Society of Southwestern Archivists, Digital Humanities, the American Library Association and SXSW. He has a BA in Computer Science and Linguistics from Rice University.

May 3, 2022: “Challenges and Opportunities of the Integration of DH into Kyrgyzstan’s Higher Education Curriculum”

Abstract:
Dr. Karybekova will discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrating Digital Humanities (DH) into Kyrgyzstan’s higher education linguistics curriculum. The Kyrgyz higher education curriculum is set by government officials in consultation with university representatives, making any changes to curriculum a long process and one that requires a lot of discussion and planning. This talk explores how interdisciplinarity might be successfully implemented in Kyrgyz linguistics departments by starting with pilot modules in existing courses, to gather information for an evidence-based discussion at the department and university levels in 2024-2025. The planned modules will draw on a combination of Dr Karybekova’s experience as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Maryland’s INFO College (2022-2023), her local knowledge, and that of her colleagues and students, their institutional realities at Manas University, and other cultural factors that impact curricular change. This talk will explore possible solutions to the problems related to the lack of infrastructure and experience of DH methods in Kyrgystan and Central Asia more broadly, and will suggest how changes to the curriculum would help Kyrgyz graduates keep pace with the changing world, support lifelong learning, integrate into the global market and prevent economic exclusion, radicalism, and labor migration.

March 1, 2023: CAFe Speaker Series: Curating Longitudinal Natural History Data Through the CHANGES Project

Abstract:
Dr. Andrea Thomer, Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona School of Information, will discuss natural history data curation: the specimens, field notes, and other data stored in natural history collections can be crucial for studies of past and on-going climate change—but only if they can be transformed into computationally-ready datasets. In this talk, she will describe the CHANGES (Collections, Heterogenous data And Next Generation Ecological Synthesis) project, in which they are developing approaches to curate rich but under-utilized longitudinal datasets that are often stored in the archives of natural history collections and surveys. Working with over 100 years of archival records from the Michigan Institute for Fisheries Research, they used the Zooniverse community science platform to ask friendly strangers from the internet to help transcribe over 100,000 data cards. Extensive data curation is needed both before and after records are entered in Zooniverse; while they have developed some workflows that will likely be generalizable to similar projects, considerable curation “by hand” is still needed. They find that digitization reveals the human idiosyncrasies that inevitably shape any artifact created by many people over many years.

February 14, 2023: Douglass Day Transcribe-a-Thon

Event Start Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 – 12:00 pm
Event End Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 – 3:00 pm
Location: In Person, University of Maryland College Park, Hornbake Library 0300 (Info Commons)

Celebrate Frederick Douglass’s birthday and Black History Month by preserving a rich collection of African American history. The day will include a Transcribe-a-Thon featuring the papers of the activist Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a live stream of the Douglass Day program at Penn State, live music, and tours of the Driskell Center and UMD Special Collections. If you’re a baker – bring your best birthday cake for a fun tasting and to share!

This event is free and open to the public.

Tour Descriptions:

Driskell Center tour: The David C. Driskell Center honors the legacy of David C. Driskell—Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Art, Artist, Art Historian, Collector, Curator, and Philanthropist—by preserving the rich heritage of African American visual art and culture. The Driskell Center currently features the exhibit RINGGOLD | SAAR: Meeting on the Matrix which will be a highlight of the tour. Additionally, the tour will include access to archival stacks and featured materials if time permits.

SCUA tour: Housed in Hornbake Library, UMD’s Special Collections and University Archives holds a rich array of materials related to Black History including the African American and African Pamphlet collection, the A. Lynn Bolles papers, among others. The current exhibit on display is Get Out the Vote highlighting materials related to suffrage and disenfranchisement in the United States. The tour will include access to archival stacks and featured materials if time permits.

February 1, 2023: CAFe Speaker Series: Accidental Evidence: The Amateur Film in the Government Archive

Audrey Amidon, Motion Picture Preservation Specialist, Moving Image and Sound Preservation Labs, National Archives and Records Administration
Heidi Holmstrom, Motion Picture Preservation Specialist, National Archives and Records Administration

Abstract:
The Federal archive may be the last place one thinks to look for amateur film, but among the footage shot by government employees and contractors there are numerous films collected by government agencies because they document activities or events of importance to the United States. This “accidental evidence” includes films of UFO sightings, a presidential assassination, and the activities of American fascists. In this presentation, Audrey Amidon and Heidi Holmstrom from NARA will reflect on what makes a film a government record and how these amateur films came to be preserved at the National Archives

December 7, 2022: CAFe Speaker Series: Belongings, Archives & Indigenizing Design
Lorén M. Spears, Narragansett and Executive Director of Tomaquag Museum

Abstract: The Tomaquag museum established in 1958 by Eva Butler, an anthropologist, with the guidance of the late Princess Red Wing (Narragansett/Wampanoag) is the only museum in Rhode Island dedicated to and operated by Indigenous peoples in the state and region. Tomaquag’s mission is to educate the general public about the histories of Indigenous peoples in ways that center their experiences in the past, present and future. The museum through its mission, outreach, and educational initiatives strives to Indigenize the museum through decolonizing and Indigenizing practices and policies. Lorén Spears, Narragansett, and Executive Director of Tomaquag Museum, will share the strategies around decolonizing and Indigenizing the policies, processes, and design of collections and archives within our current museum and our planning for our new museum campus.

November 2, 2022: Data Articles: Introducing a Genre— with the Journal of Open Humanities Data and Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation

Victoria Van Hyning, Assistant Professor, the University of Maryland, College of Information Studies; Representative of the Journal of Open Humanities Data

October 5, 2022: Close/Distant: Scales of Analysis in Digital Projects
Dr. Ruth Ahnert, Queen Mary University

September 23, 2022: SNACSchool @ UMD

This is the official training program of the Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) platform. SNAC is a cooperative platform that aggregates archival finding aids, making collections searchable across institutions, and across the world.

NARA archivists and SNAC Liaisons Jerry Simmons and Dina Herbert lead an in-person half-day training in SNAC. We are very lucky to be partnering with SNAC to offer this training live for UMD students, staff, and faculty.

Attendees will get a refresher on some core concepts (a.k.a. authority control, metadata standards), learn how to edit a historical figure, and link them to archival resources across the world.

September 14, 2022: Virtual Panel Discussion: Digitizing Artifacts from the Black Lives Matter Memorial Fence
Aliza Leventhal (Library of Congress), Jodi Hoover (Enoch Pratt), Laura Farley (DC Public Library), Junious Whitaker IV (Howard University) and Karen Irwin (activist), and Nadine Seiler (activist)

SPRING 2022

May 4, 2022: Speaking with the Past: Novel forms of access to spoken word collections
Douglas W. Oard. Professor, University of Maryland, INFO

April 6, 2022: A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Graduate Archival Studies During COVID-19
Ferrin Evans. Master’s candidate, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

March 2, 2022: Techno-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation
Dr. Nettrice Gaskins. Artist. Academic. Cultural Critic and advocate of STEAM fields

February 2, 2022: Body-Oriented Cataloging and the Future of Gender in Archives
Travis Wagner, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow. University of Maryland, INFO

December 8, 2021: The CAFe Book Series Presents: Matthew G Kirschenbaum’s Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary Heritage
Matthew Kirschenbaum. Professor of English and Digital Studies. University of Maryland

December 1, 2021: Linking, sharing and using community generated digital content: using and sustaining citizen histories
Lorna M. Huges, Ph.D., Professor of Digital Humanities. University of Glasgow

November 17, 2021: CAFe FOIA presentation: “Secrets of the Freedom of Information Act: Everything you need to know about the FOIA process (including finding out where the Roswell documents are)”
Jason R. Baron, Professor of the Practice. University of Maryland, INFO

October 6, 2021: Preservation for Possibility: Archives’ Collaborations in Future Imaginations
Sherri Wasserman, Ph.D. Candidate, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University

September 1, 2021: Innovative Approaches to Digital Public Records: The Vermont Experience
Tanya Marshall, State of Vermont

SPRING 2021

May 5, 2021: Working with Indigenous Australian peoples to support community archiving and cultural safety
Kirsten Thorpe, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney

April 7, 2021: Using Geographical Archival Resources for Quantitative History: A Practitioner’s Perspective
Valeria Ruedo, University of Nottingham’s School of Economics

March 3, 2021: What To Do with All This Stuff: Archive-Based Content Strategy in the Attention Economy
Umi Hsu, ONE Archive Foundation

Feb 3, 2021:  Presidential Transitions and Presidential Libraries: Past, Present and Future
Gary M. Stern, National Archives and Records Administration