Description

Highlights of this year’s meeting include an introduction by Steven D. Booth & Brenda Gunn of their Archival Revolutions project, the presentation of the Archival History Article Award, as well as guest presentations on the documentation of present and past pandemics.

AGENDA

1. Welcome/Preliminaries
   1. Updates from section liaison, Mario Ramirez
2. Old business
   1. The year in review
   2. Report from Archival History News (archivalhistory.news)
3. New business
   1. Introduction of Steven D. Booth & Brenda Gunn’s Archival Revolutions project
   2. Archival History Article Award
4. Presentations
   1. The Past as Prologue: Lessons of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, J. Alexander Navarro, Ph.D., University of Michigan
   2. Community Collaboration and Documenting a Pandemic, Sarah Allison, Ball State University
5. Introduction of incoming Steering Committee Members

SPEAKERS

Sarah M. Allison is the Head of Archives User Engagement in the Archives and Special Collections department at Ball State University Libraries. Before coming to Ball State University in June of 2018, she was the Special Collections Librarian at New Mexico State University, where she oversaw the Special Collections Unit, comprising more than 50,000 books relating to New Mexico and the Southwest.

She received her MLIS from Valdosta State University and her BA in Art History from the University of Redlands.

In her current role at Ball State University, Sarah leads an energetic staff in the areas of public service, collection development and management, and user services for the Archives and Special Collections department. She continues to develop and manage community collaboration-based projects such as spearheading the Document Your Story: COVID-19 Pandemic Project Archive.

Alex Navarro is the Assistant Director at the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History with Honors from Rutgers University, and his Doctor of Philosophy in History from the University of Michigan.

Since joining the Center for the History of Medicine in 2005, Dr. Navarro has focused much of his research on the historical, social, economic, and political ramifications of the 1918 and 2009 influenza pandemics. He was a co-principal investigator and the lead researcher on the Center’s landmark study of the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions in the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, and on the Center’s qualitative examination of school closures implemented during the 2009 pA(H1N1) influenza pandemic. He is also the Co-Editor in Chief of The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia, and was responsible for researching and writing the site’s essays detailing the experiences of 50 American cities during the deadly pandemic.

Dr. Navarro is currently researching the interplay between territorial aggrandizement, disease, and American portrayals of Mexico and Mexicans during the Mexican War. In addition to supervising the Center’s large research projects, Dr. Navarro assists in developing public programming at the Center and in managing the Center’s daily operations.