SC2019: Wednesday Plenary Track

Slide packs are linked from the session titles below.

The Wednesday morning plenary session was captured on video which can be found here.

Participants in Samvera Connect 2019 Courtesy: Washington University in St Louis Libraries

Breakfast (8:00 AM - 9:00 AM)

Bauer Hall, Frick Forum

Welcome and Opening Remarks (9:00 AM - 9:20 AM)

Description: Welcome and opening remarks

Speakers: Harriett Green (Associate University Librarian for Digital Scholarship and Technology Services) and Emily Stenberg (Host Co-Chair)
Response: Jon Dunn (Chair, Samvera Steering Group)

Code of Conduct (9:20 AM - 9:30 AM)

Description: This session will go over the Samvera Community Code of Conduct.

Speaker: Jessica Hilt

Introduction of Keynote Speaker (9:30 AM - 9:35 AM)

Speaker: Jon Dunn (Chair, Samvera Steering Group)

Keynote Address (9:35 AM - 10:10 AM)

Video: https://lecturecapture.wustl.edu/mediasite/Play/615eabd66bf84ab5a8e1d90ca131cf991d Keynote address starts at time index 0:25:00

Title: Sites of Memory, Acts of Erasure: On the Powers, Meanings and Limitations of the Historical Archive

Speaker: Heidi Aronson Kolk, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis

Historian Pierre Nora has argued that we are living in an archival age––one in which we seek nothing less than “complete conservation of the present” and “total preservation of the past.” The advent of digital media has aided this project, but also exposed its futility, and in turn compounded our archival obsession, which Nora reminds us is rooted in anxiety about the meaning of the present, a sense of alienation from our collective past, and broader fears of cultural––or human––annihilation. In “Sites of Memory, Acts of Erasure,” Heidi Aronson Kolk will explore the unusual potency of the well-preserved material archive, while challenging us to consider its dark twin––the site of erasure, forgetting and annihilation. Her presentation will engage subjects introduced in her book, Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House (University of Massachusetts Press, 2019), but also recent political events in St. Louis, probing the deeper motives and implications of heritage preservation.

HEIDI ARONSON KOLK is Assistant Professor in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, and Assistant Vice Provost of Academic Assessment, at Washington University in St. Louis. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the American Culture Studies program.

Her research explores the politics of public memory in the United States, especially where it intersects with matters of race and space, heritage and public culture, and the history of American cities. Her recent book, Taking Possession: The Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House (University of Massachusetts Press, 2019), engages several of these subjects. She has also published in journals such as Winterthur Portfolio, Biography and The Common Reader, and served, with Iver Bernstein, as co-lead investigator on a project entitled The Material World of Modern Segregation: St. Louis in the Long Era of Ferguson. She is currently at work on a book-length study of the long history of “negative heritage” in the U.S.––sites said to be haunted, cursed, contaminated, or otherwise "unredeemable" (ethically, materially, interpretatively, politically), but that nevertheless have a powerful hold on the public imagination.

Before completing a Ph.D. in English and American Literature, Heidi trained as a visual artist and poet. She joined the Sam Fox School in 2018, after more than a decade of leadership in academic programs elsewhere in the university, including in the American Culture Studies program, where she served as both Associate and Acting Director. She continues to be involved in university assessment and accreditation endeavors, and has helped with the development of a new MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture (launched 2019), an innovative program administered collaboratively by the Sam Fox School and Olin Library. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on a wide range of subjects in 19^th and 20^th century American culture, from place and public memory to visual and material culture to the history of American consumerism.