After mild improvements, American Indian reservations still suffer from “digital divide.”

This post was sparked by thoughtful conversations with Liz, Kelly, Beth, Marie, and Jenny. Thank you all! When I was six, my mom taught me how to knit. We made knitting needles out of wooden dowels…

Can education be the practice of freedom if algorithms shape the curriculum?

Yesterday I gathered with a fantastic team of fellow IU Bloomington early modern scholars for a satellite session of the Six Degrees of Francis Bacon Networking Women event. The event proved incred…

Hi everyone, I just came back from giving a keynote speech in Vancouver Canada, complete with pictures of baby animals. I am condensing the key concepts here. A couple of notes before we tackle tod…

What makes a record a "human rights record"? What types of records fall under this umbrella term? How and why might we develop a typology of such records? What is at stake—ethically, theoretically, and practically—in the ways in which and the reasons why we define and classify records as such? This article seeks to answer these questions by delineating a typology of human rights records. First, this article will provide a literature review exploring the history of conceptions of human rights records in archival studies, as well as the ongoing discussion in information studies more broadly about the politics of the organization of information. Next, this paper will outline the chosen methodology of conceptual analysis and describe the ways such methodology will be employed to de/construct the term “human rights record.” This paper will then provide a typology of human rights records, positing that such records can be examined according to five interlocking vectors: who created them, why, and when, where they are currently stewarded, and how they are being put to use. This paper will then analyze two keys examples of human rights records using the proposed typology. Finally, this paper will conclude by examining the ethical, political, and professional implications of the proposed typology and suggest ways in which this rubric can be used in the future.

Themed journal issue.

Being a black professor at a predominantly white university can be just as uncomfortable as—if not more so than—being a black student at one.

In the 1950s, a group of scientists spoke out against the dangers of nuclear weapons. Should cryptographers take on the surveillance state?

Abstract This article explores the rich history of social justice as a concern in archival studies and delineates future lines of inquiry for the field. We begin by examining how social justice has been defined in the archives literature and its implications for archival studies. Next, we draw forth five major strands of archival thinking in relation to social justice. We identify prominent areas in the archival literature that highlight the relationship between archives and social justice. We also identify critical questions in the relationship between social justice and archives and propose new research trajectories that we deem necessary to advance the archival field in general and its scholarship in particular. Finally, we argue for the importance of research that strengthens the tenets of social justice as a central principle in archival scholarship and practice.

Originally posted on DETROITography.com I am constantly thinking about how to make maps and data more focused on people, their stories, and the impacts that those numbers represent. It is a constan…

Studies show big data can lead to racial bias, algorithms develop prejudices.

Despite all the hype about how it has connected the world, the web is more insular than you might think.

As archives start to collect, provide access to, and present social media collections, many ethical issues arise that need to be addressed.