Digital Blackness in the Archive: A Documenting the Now Symposium
December 11-12, 2017 | #BlackDigArchive
The second Documenting the Now symposium, to be held in conjunction with our advisory board meeting, will address issues at the intersection of archival practice and the existence of Black people on the web and social media. Invited speakers will discuss their work on the Black experience in online spaces including research on joy and creativity expressed by Black people on the web, cultural and social expression, activism and other acts of resistance, the Black experience with state sponsored online surveillance, and racism and bias in algorithm and social media platform design. The program will be an opportunity for the general public, activists, archivists, library and museum professionals, and the academic community, to learn and share together in conversations about digital culture and digital archives that center blackness. Because we too often attempt to find solutions before fully understanding the issues, an intentional goal of the program is to broaden knowledge around the realities faced by Black people participating in online spaces, in hopes that this new knowledge will impact how archivists and other cultural documenters do their work around appraisal, collection, access, preservation, and use of social media and other web-based content that documents Black lives. Panels and talks from the symposium will be livestreamed on this website.
Ferguson Public Library: Photo from CNN
Monday, December 11 @ Ferguson Public Library
Welcome and Introductions
- Vernon Mitchell
@vcmitchelljr - Academic Lead, Documenting the Now - Scott Bonner
@scottybonner - Director, Ferguson Public Library
Opening Talk
- Marisa Parham
@amplify285 - Professor of English and Director of Five College Digital Humanities, Amherst College
Panel 1: The Ferguson Effect on Local Activism and Community Memory
- Alexis Templeton
Co-founder of Millennial Activists United and Student at Washington University in St. Louis - Kayla Reed
@iKaylaReed - Community Organizer with Ferguson Action Council and Leadership Team Member for the Movement for Black Lives - Brittany Ferrell
@bdoulaoblongata - Activist and co-founder of what was known as MAU, now practicing Labor and Delivery Registered Nursing and will soon return to graduate school to pursue a Master in Public Health with a focus in Maternal Fetal Health. An Activist and organizer at heart, Ferrell has a steadfast commitment to fighting for the lives of Black people in the streets and in medical industry where Black folks are often under-cared for and under-represented - Aleia Brown
@CollardStudies - Moderator, Co-Founder of #BlkTwitterstorians and #MuseumsRespondtoFerguson, Public Historian and Program Manager at the Humanities Action Lab
Lunch
- Group lunch at Drake's Place
Movie Screening and Panel Discussion
- Whose Streets? showing at Washington University, Brown Hall Room 100. This event is open to the public and campus community.
Tuesday, December 12 @ Washington University STL
McGinnis Classroom, Bauer Hall, Danforth Campus
DocNow Application Demo/Discussion (Optional)
- Ed Summers
@edsu - Technical Lead, Documenting the Now - Alexandra Dolan-Mescal
@fromadmwithlove - User Experience Designer, Documenting the Now - Francis Kayiwa
@kayiwa - DevOps Engineer, Documenting the Now
Welcome
- Vernon Mitchell
@vcmitchelljr - Academic Lead, Documenting the Now - Denise Stephens
University Librarian and Vice Provost, WUSTL Libraries
Panel 2: Supporting Research: Digital Black Culture Archives for the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Meredith Clark
@meredithdclark - Moderator, Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia - Melissa Brown
@BlackFeministMB - PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland - Alyssa Collins
@LyssaDee - Doctoral Student, Department of English, University of Virginia - Catherine Knight Steele
@SteeleCat717 - Director of AADHum, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, University of Maryland
Lunch
Panel 3: Digital Blackness in the Archive: Collecting for the Culture
- Tonia Sutherland
@toniasutherland - Assistant Professor, College of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Alabama - Kimberly Springer
@kspringeruk - Moderator, Curator of Oral History, Columbia University Libraries - Toniesha Taylor
@DrTonieshaT - Associate Professor of Communication, Prairie View A & M University - Adrianne Russell
@adriannerussell - Co-Founder of #MuseumsRespondtoFerguson, Writer, Nonprofit Consultant
Closing Remarks and Thank Yous
- Bergis Jules
@bergisjules - Archivist at University of California, Riverside and Community Lead for Documenting the Now