The lecture series honors the memory of Dr. Bernadette Callery who was a member of the iSchool faculty and who taught in the Archives specialization in the Library and Information Science program. Previous to joining the faculty, Dr. Callery was the Museum Librarian at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Before her death, Dr. Callery thoughtfully established this lecture series, which was funded through a generous bequest.
Past Lectures
Friday, October 27
11:00 a.m.
Room 501, Information Sciences Building
Jeannette Bastian (PhD ’99), Professor & Director, Archives Management Concentration; Director, Simmons School of Library and Information Science
“Radical Recordkeeping: How Decolonizing Archives Helps us Think Differently About Them”
Abstract: ‘Decolonizing the archives’ has become a popular metaphor for re-assessing and even abandoning traditional archival theory and practice in favor of viewing records from the perspective of communities that have been archivally marginalized. The term ‘decolonization’ refers generally both to the removal of domination by colonial forces within the geographical spaces and institutions of the colonized, as well as to a ‘decolonizing of the mind’ from the colonizers’ ideas. For archives professionals in both settler nations with indigenous or alienated communities and those postcolonial nations and peoples casting off the legacies of oppression, recognizing and legitimating the diversity of records and cultural expressions has become a major concern in the 21st century. Confronting the archival challenges presented by decolonization demands a mindset that is willing to directly interact with those challenges unmediated by the strictures and formalities of pre-set concepts.
This presentation considers these challenges while tracing the post-colonial/decolonial trajectory and suggesting that seeing archives from the margins and bringing the margins to the middle offers fresh and inclusive paths towards a holistic archival universe.
Bio: Jeannette A. Bastian is Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Director of the Archives Management concentration. She has taught at Simmons since 1999. Formerly Territorial Librarian of the United States Virgin Islands from 1987 to 1998, she received her MLS from Shippensburg University, an M.Phil in Caribbean Literature from the University of the West Indies (Mona) and a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include archival education, memory, community archives, and postcolonialism.
She is widely published in the archival literature and her books include West Indian Literature, An Index to Criticism, 1930-1975 (1981) Owning Memory, How a Caribbean Community Lost Its Archives and Found Its History (2003), Archival Internships (2008), and Community Archives, The Shaping of Memory (2009).
Monday, September 26, 2016
3:00 p.m.
Alumni Hall, Connolly Ballroom
4227 5th Avenue
A kosher catered reception will be held after the lecture and Q&A.
Katharina Hering (MLIS ’10), Project Archivist, National Equal Justice Library, Georgetown Law Library, Washington, D.C.
“Holocaust Reparation and Restitution Files in German State Archives: Institutional Approaches to Managing Ethical and Technical Challenges for Providing Access”
Abstract: Following the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors filed reparation, restitution and pension claims with West German state agencies. In recent decades, archivists have noticed an increased research interest in the case files documenting these claims. Providing access to these records, and enabling their discovery, has posed significant technical and ethical challenges for archives and archivists. This is due to the large volume of files, to privacy laws protecting the private and confidential information that survivors had to provide, and to preservation issues. In this lecture in honor of Dr. Bernadette Callery, I will discuss how different German state archives have managed these challenges, and how archivists reflect about their roles as custodians of public records, who are committed to respecting the informational self-determination of Holocaust survivors. A special focus will be on the approaches of the Bavarian State Archives. My research-in-progress is based on a 2016 survey of archival challenges to providing access to reparation and restitution files, which is supported by a fellowship of the EHRI (European Holocaust Research Infrastructure) project. I greatly look forward to a vibrant discussion.
Bio: Katharina Hering is the Project Archivist for the National Equal Justice Library at Georgetown Law Library in Washington, D.C., and active on the steering committee of SAA’s International Archival Affairs Roundtable. She holds a PhD in history from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, a MLIS specializing in archives, records management, and preservation from the University of Pittsburgh, and a MA in political science and history from the Universität Hamburg, Germany. Her dissertation analyzed the history of Pennsylvania German genealogical practice from a transatlantic perspective, and her current research focuses on the ethics of archival access to reparation and restitution case files. While pursuing her MLIS, she worked for the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Sen. John Heinz History Center as part of the Pitt Partners Program. Before moving to Washington, D.C., she lived in Hamburg, Germany, where she worked on several projects on the history of the Holocaust and its aftermath and was also active in an independent community radio station.
This event is brought to you, in part by, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh Jewish Studies Department, and the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center.