POLICY, ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY LECTURE SERIES
Co-sponsored by the School of Information Sciences and the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership, University of Pittsburgh

This series is free and open to the public. The schedule of speakers is as follows:

• March 19, 2007
  Jeannette A. Bastian
  "From Chile to  9/11:  Collective Memory and  Social Responsibility"
  Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
  Collective memory offers perspectives on historic events that enable the crossing of boundaries between past and present in order to better understand social movements and concerns. In recent decades, the study of collective memory has become a major scholarly preoccupation. The collective memory perspective also offers archivists and other record keepers avenues for re-envisioning their own documenting responsibilities and opportunities.  Beginning with conceptualizations of collective memory from both within and outside the archival profession, this presentation will consider how collective memory broadens and extends the records of events, provides windows into areas beyond the reach of traditional documentation and brings social context and responsibility into the forefront of archival practice.
  
  Jeannette A. Bastian is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and  Information Science at Simmons College where she also directs their Archives Management program.  She received her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences.  Formerly the director of the Territorial Library and Archives of the United States Virgin Islands, Jeannette is the author of   Owning Memory; How a Caribbean Community Lost Its Archives and Found Its History, published in 2003. She publishes widely in the archival literature and is currently the Book Reviews editor for the American Archivist.
  
  
• April 2, 2007
  James M. O’Toole
  "Inadequate Recordkeeping": Some Thoughts on Ethical Dilemmas for Archivists
  Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
  Based on his experience as the archivist for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, O’Toole will discuss the role that recordkeeping came to play in the clergy sexual abuse crisis of the last few years.  This case study will explore the uses of records in documenting this abuse, and their role in the exposure of that abuse to public scrutiny.  The talk will also consider the implications of this case for the larger ethical questions that often arise in professional practice.
  
  James M. O’Toole is the Clough Professor of History at Boston College.  His archival career included positions at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Massachusetts State Archives, and the Archives of the Archdiocese of Boston.  He has published widely in archival theory, including a second edition (2006) of Understanding Archives and Manuscripts, with Richard J. Cox.  He also works in the field of American religious and American Catholic history; he is the author, most recently, of Habits of Devotion: Catholic Religious Practice in Twentieth Century America (2004).
  
  
• February 4, 2008
  Steven Aftergood
  “The Challenge of Government Security”
  Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
  [ video ]
  Mr. Aftergood specializes in national information security and policy.  His presentation will discuss how many of the most important controversies of our time, from the conduct of domestic surveillance to the detention and interrogation of suspected enemy combatants, have revolved around government secrecy.  Secrecy may be needed to protect certain aspects of national security, but it can also be used to shield incompetence or to evade accountability.  This talk will explain how secrecy is used and misused, and will explore how several current issues illustrate the friction between the impulse to secrecy and societal values such as freedom of the press, democratic decision-making and government accountability.
  
  Steven Aftergood is a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) specializing in national security information and intelligence policies.  He directs the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, which works to reduce the scope of official secrecy and to promote reform of related security practices.  The Federation of American Scientists, founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists, is a non-profit national organization of scientists and engineers concerned with issues of science and national security policy.

This lecture series is free and open to the public.

Past Lectures