Lunch at the Library: "Ethical returns, access and complicating the archive” with Maura Sullivan

Livestream the event here.

The recording of this lecture is now available on our YouTube.

Join us for a Lunch at the Library presentation from Andrew W. Mellon Native American Scholars Initiative CNAIR Fellow Maura Sullivan, who will be sharing an abstract from her current project.

This talk will explore the issue of access to archives. As a Chumash linguist researching archival materials the idea of access comes up a lot and I hope to detail the different ways that it takes shape. This will cover the logistics of accessing physical or digital copies of archives as an Indigenous researcher. How do institutions, both public and private, make decisions about how people interact with archives? I will discuss ways I have incorporated my own Chumash teachings into how I interact with archival material and spaces. Another aspect to access is how technology as well as the internet is considered in the creation of language resources by tribal communities. In considering the APS’s own adage about “useful” knowledge, as someone who is at the crossroads of institutions and my tribal community, how are archives and products of their research being made with care and thought put towards tribe’s and their needs in a “useful” but also respectful way.

This event will take place on Wednesday, November 29, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. ET in Benjamin Franklin Hall and will also be livestreamed. This event is free to attend but registration is required. Please register to attend in-person and online. Lunch will be provided to those attending in person.

Maura Sullivan (Mellon Foundation Native American Scholars Initiative Predoctoral Fellowship) is a Chumash linguist working on her PhD at Tulane University. Her linguistic interests include using archives in language revitalization as well as audio and video techniques for language use. She is active in the language revitalization and preservation movement working on Chumash languages since 2010 and networking with other Indigenous language workers. She has a certificate in Community Engaged scholarship through the Mellon Fellowship and Center for Public Service at Tulane. She was previously the Peter S. Buck predoctoral fellow with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History analyzing Chumash linguistic archives.