Policy, Ethics & Accountability Lecture Series

SIS is pleased to announce that Jeannette A. Bastion, a graduate of the School’s PhD program in Library and Information Science, will be the next speaker in the “Policy, Ethics & Accountability” Lecture Series. Dr. Bastion will discuss “From Chile to 9/11:  Collective Memory and Social Responsibility” on Monday, March 19, beginning at 4:30 pm in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium. This lecture series is co-sponsored by the School of Information Sciences and the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. 

Collective memory offers perspectives on historic events that enable the crossing of boundaries between past and present in order to better understand social movements and concerns. In recent decades, the study of collective memory has become a major scholarly preoccupation. The collective memory perspective also offers archivists and other record keepers avenues for re-envisioning their own documenting responsibilities and opportunities. Beginning with conceptualizations of collective memory from both within and outside the archival profession, this presentation will consider how collective memory broadens and extends the records of events, provides windows into areas beyond the reach of traditional documentation and brings social context and responsibility into the forefront of archival practice.

Jeannette A. Bastian is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College where she also directs their Archives Management program. She received her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences.  Formerly the director of the Territorial Library and Archives of the United States Virgin Islands, Jeannette is the author of Owning Memory; How a Caribbean Community Lost Its Archives and Found Its History, published in 2003. She publishes widely in the archival literature and is currently the Book Reviews editor for the American Archivist.

Visit http://www.sis.pitt.edu/academics/colloquia/policySeries.html for more information about the Policy, Ethics and Accountability Lecture Series, which is presented by the Johnson Institute for Responsible Government at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.