⸮Neutral / حياد / بی طرف / tarafsız?: Heritage, Colonialism and Diversity in Middle East Libraries and Archives
The Middle East Librarians Association (MELA)’s Social Justice Committee’s Lecture Series aims to increase awareness of social justice principles in our professional practice and to bring attention to how libraries and archives are supporting or failing to support, crucial research on social justice-related topics. The first season, running from 2020-2021, featured ten scholars speaking on race in the Middle East and its diasporas. We were able to provide honorariums for our speakers and closed captioning for our audiences, which averaged around 100 per lecture from around the world, thanks to generous donations to our successful GoFundMe campaign.
For the 2021-2022 season of MELA’s Social Justice Lecture Series, we will invite librarians, archivists, conservators, curators, and other cultural heritage workers and information professionals from around the world to discuss working with “Middle Eastern” library collections (collections broadly consisting of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish-language materials, though they also may contain materials in minority languages from countries where these primary languages predominate), both in their indigenous contexts and internationally. From traditional private libraries to university repositories to new-media “pop-up” archives, our speakers will explore whether, as protectors of materials of cultural expression, libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions can be neutral spaces– and if not, what should be their role?
We are launching another fundraiser for this season so that we can once again offer honorariums to our valued speakers. Because we intend to invite librarians, archivists, and other cultural heritage workers from around the world to speak, we would also like to be able to provide simultaneous translation services as needed.