- SAA2008 I will be in San Francisco all of next week for the Society of American Archivists annual meeting. Of particular note: Global Issues Forum on “Archival Ethics and Social Justice: What is our Professional Responsibility?” Consisting of panelists and open discussion, the forum will begin by considering the “Key Propositions and Questions,” presented in the […]
- I-Witness Video, archives & advocacy Saturday’s Times had an update on the continuing efforts of the city of NY to force I-Witness Video to turn over hundreds of hours of videotapes shot during the 2004 protests at the Republican National Convention. For those unfamiliar with this story, this small group of activists mobilized hundreds of citizens with video cameras with […]
- My vacation I’m back from a road trip with family through PA, WV, VA and KY (really not the summer to do this, although gas was a lot cheaper down south). Along with some hiking and biking and fabulous roadside dioramas, I had the pleasure of making a short visit to Appalshop, the legendary arts, media and […]
- Saad Eskander Guardian interview The Guardian online has an interview with Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraqi National Archive and Library. The former Kurdish resistance fighter returned to Baghdad in 2003 with a freshly minted Phd from the London School of Economics, and was appointed soon after. It is an almost unimaginable job under heartbreaking and terrifying conditions; he […]
- Archivists demand return of seized Iraqi documents The Society of American Archivists (SAA) and the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) have released a joint statement calling for the return of five sets of records seized from Iraq during both Gulf conflicts and now in various US locations. They are (from the statement): Records seized by the U.S. military and intelligence agencies during […]
- Event: Archive Fever at NYPL This coming Monday April 14 at the New York Public Library: “One of the most compelling issues explored by artists in recent years centers on the nature and meaning of the archive, that is, how we create, store, and circulate pictures and information. Against the standard view of the archive which evokes a dim, musty […]
- New Human Rights Archives newsletter from ICA The Archives and Human Rights Working Group of the International Council on Archives has published its first newsletter. According to the editorial, “The newsletter will appear on a monthly basis until the ICA Congress in July 2008. A possible outcome of the Congress could be the establishment of a formalized Network, possibly within the ICA, […]
- Event: visit to Archive for Human Rights at Duke Next week I’ll be visiting and speaking at the Archive for Human Rights at Duke University. I’ll be screening a recent Memorial/WITNESS video, Missing Lives: Disappearances and Impunity in the Northern Caucasus, and talk about some of the production and archiving processes and challenges; the announcement is here. I’m looking forward to seeing the Duke […]
- U Conn Symposium I returned last night from a brief but really productive symposium at the University of Connecticut, organized and hosted by the Dodd Center, home to the University’s human rights collections. The symposium was designed in part as a follow-up to last October’s conference at Columbia, and an effort to foster collaboration and resource-sharing among organizations […]
- Event: Human Rights Archives & Documentation at U Conn March 3 & 4, 2008: The Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut is hosting a one and a half day symposium, “Human Rights Archives and Documentation: Transforming Ideas into Practice.” Speakers include Patricia Wald of the ICTY and Trudy Huskamp Peterson, former Acting Archivist of the […]
- Kenya, Cambodia and Australia at the Hub – NOW! Head on over to the Hub (once you’ve read these great posts from Matisse and Sam, of course) for this week’s Picks… and see the end of this post for further links and info. As well as images of continuing violence from the Rift Valley town of Naivasha, shot by our Kenyan partners Cemiride, we’ve […]
- WITNESS launches the HUB WITNESS has launched the HUB. This is the first participatory site devoted to human rights media.
- Further thoughts on AMIA-Rochester A follow up to the Association of Moving Image Archivists conference two weeks ago: WITNESS Archive staff attended an thoughtful session entitled “Recording Retribution: Issues in the Curation of, and Access to, Actuality Footage of War and Atrocity.” Speakers included staff from the Imperial War Museum, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Inkulla Media. Presentations […]
- Archives & Documentation Conference: a few thoughts Human Rights Archives and Documentation: Meeting the Needs of Research, Teaching, Advocacy and Social Justice. Hosted by Columbia’s Center for Human Rights Documentation & Research, the conference was really an excellent first step in promoting collaboration and dialogue among different kinds of organizations dealing with human rights materials. Participants included archivists from academic institutions, and […]
- Digitization of Guatemala Police Archives Here is an update on one of the hopeful developments in Guatemala in years: the recovery of the secret archives of the Guatemalan National Police. Discovered by accident in 2005, the paper, audio and video documents may help shed light on thousands of murders and other crimes perpetrated during the civil war. Dating back to […]
