Season Three of the Social Justice Lecture Series
Lives in the Margins: Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the Middle East
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, coincided with a global movement fighting anti-blackness, and featured ten scholars presenting their new research on race in the Middle East and its diasporas. For the second season, 2021-2022, we focused on the challenges and opportunities faced by information professionals stewarding Middle Eastern collections around the world, and hosted eight librarians, archivists, and curators to speak on their experiences. Though many of the lectures were not recorded, you can watch those that were on our YouTube Channel.
For the upcoming third season of the Social Justice Lecture Series, which we have entitled “Lives in the Margins: Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the Middle East,” we seek to combine and expand the themes of the previous seasons. We will invite scholars researching minority groups to speak about the questions they are attempting to answer and the barriers they face accessing resources, and we will also host information professionals to reflect on whose heritage is being preserved, and how, and why or why not.
We have been able to offer honorariums for all speakers we have hosted so far, thanks to generous donations to our successful GoFundMe campaigns. We are launching another fundraiser for this season so that we can continue this proud tradition.
Please donate here: https://gofund.me/a3f8b260, every little bit helps!
Click here for descriptions of Social Justice Lecture Series Season 3 with links to recordings