11a Who is here?: Impediments and Enablers to Conference Presenting
Tracks
Practice and Identity
| Wednesday, October 19, 2022 |
| 9:45 AM - 11:15 AM |
Presentation Type
Traditional Paper -- Moderator: Nick Gleghorn
Session Information
Workforce Development: Session 11 focusses on how the role of the archivist is changing in the modern era along with the links the archivist has with society generally. These changes will impact on the skills the archivist will require in this new world. The approach in the session is to look at these aspects of using disabled people to digitise records at; the overall skills required by a modern audio-visual archivist; and developing skills for modern digital management practices.
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David Fricker
President
International Council on Archives
Who is here?: Impediments and enablers to conference presenting
Nicola Laurent
University Of Melbourne
Who is here?: Impediments and enablers to conference presenting
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The Australian archival community includes people working, studying and volunteering in a wide range of organisations, representing different cultural backgrounds and communities. However, at professional conferences, we routinely find similar speakers presenting. Clusters of our community regularly remain under-represented at an event which should be helping to build our profession, and to provide space for speakers from all areas of archives.
In recent years, conferences have introduced new presentation styles including lightning talks, interactive or roundtable discussions and recognised the need for gender and cultural diversity on panels. The move to online and hybrid presentations has provided opportunities for the first time for people to present without physically attending. These are all positive changes, but we must also critically reflect on the other constraining factors - experience, support, mentoring, resources, recognition, relevance - that limit who presents.
This paper will explore who is not here presenting, and consider the inhibiting factors contributing to why they may not be presenting. We will also discuss what could be done to enable increased representation and participation at the speaker level. As regular speakers at conferences we recognise that we are part of the status quo, but wish to use our experiences to reflect on why we have presented, and what were our enablers and incentives.
It is only by understanding the voices that are missing, can we contemplate how to better support members of all areas of the community to share their experiences at conferences, to help ensure the voices that are here now are representative of all areas of the archival profession.
In recent years, conferences have introduced new presentation styles including lightning talks, interactive or roundtable discussions and recognised the need for gender and cultural diversity on panels. The move to online and hybrid presentations has provided opportunities for the first time for people to present without physically attending. These are all positive changes, but we must also critically reflect on the other constraining factors - experience, support, mentoring, resources, recognition, relevance - that limit who presents.
This paper will explore who is not here presenting, and consider the inhibiting factors contributing to why they may not be presenting. We will also discuss what could be done to enable increased representation and participation at the speaker level. As regular speakers at conferences we recognise that we are part of the status quo, but wish to use our experiences to reflect on why we have presented, and what were our enablers and incentives.
It is only by understanding the voices that are missing, can we contemplate how to better support members of all areas of the community to share their experiences at conferences, to help ensure the voices that are here now are representative of all areas of the archival profession.
