Dr. Jamila Ghaddar is a Lebanese feminist, archivist, historian, and educator. She is Assistant Professor in Archival Information & Digital Humanities at the Media Studies Department at the University of Amsterdam, and Founding Director of the Archives & Digital Media Lab (ADML). She is Chair of the Middle East Librarians Association’s Archives & Records Management Training & Advocacy Group; a member of the Association of Canadian Archivists’ Indigenous Matters Committee; co-convenor of Documentary Nakba: A Reading Group for Archival Liberation in & beyond Palestine; and co-host of Archives & Heritage in Palestine. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Raymond Frogner at the National Center for Truth & Reconciliation and Dr. Greg Bak at the History Dept. at the University of Manitoba. Her publications appear in Archival Science; Library Quarterly; Archivaria; Displaced Archival Heritage (2023, Routledge); Research Methods: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research (2024, SAGE); Briarpatch; Al-Akhbar. Ghaddar has led and collaborated on archival initiatives and information projects in sites around the world, including at AUB’s Jafet Library archiving the personal papers of the Arab intellectual who coined the term “Nakba”, Dr. Constantine Zurayk; and at the Centre of Memory in Johannesburg preserving the papers of the antiapartheid hero, Nelson Mandela. 

Dr. Mariam Karim is Lebanese-Iraqi Global Postdoctoral Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ) where she is working on a digital archival project on Arab women’s media history. Karim completed her PhD at the University of Toronto’s faculty of information (iSchool) and the Women and Gender Studies Institute (WGSI), and she served as an inaugural graduate fellow at the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative. Her research agenda explores Arab Feminist Media from the 20th century. She situates contemporary uses of digital media through historical inquiry and studies Arabic mass-media in the context of media imperialism and colonialism. To do this, she follows Arab women’s expansive mass-media practices, contributions, and ideas from the 20th century as central points of reference. Currently, her publications are under review.

Rose Miyonga is a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick, where her research focuses on the making of histories and memories of the Mau Mau War in post-independence Kenya. She holds a Masters in Race and Resistance from the University of Leeds. Her current research is concerned with questions of archival silence, and sources that speak into the gap between government records and lived experience using participatory research methodologies, non-traditional archives, and oral histories. rose.miyonga@warwick.ac.uk

Dr. James Lowry is president and director of the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, University of New York, and is the Ellen Libretto and Adam Conrad Information Studies Professor. He is founder and director of the Archive Technologies Lab (ATL) and honorary researcher at the Liverpool University Center for Archive Studies, where he will teach classes after two years of his career in archives and document management. Lowry has written and extensively researched the archives of displacement, is coordinator of the Archive Discourses, the international intellectual history research archive of archaeological studies, and editor of the Routledge Studies in Archives book series.

Mona Bashir is a researcher in the Intangible Cultural Heritage with a special interest in archives and the methods of searching, preservation and using it to maintain the Palestinian narrative and memory, especially in Gaza. Since 2018, she has served as a board member of Nawa for Culture and Art Association, which strives to empower Gaza's local community through art and culture, resisting the forces that aim to silence us. Her professional experiences reflect this resistance. Working with UNESCO on a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) study, she documented the devastating impact of Israeli wars on Gaza’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. This work extended to collaborations with both international and local organizations, where she assessed cultural and educational programs in Gaza, ensuring that our heritage is not lost amid destruction. She is part of the Knowledge Production Project at the Arab Studies Center, archiving film data from the Arab world since 1979—a crucial task in preserving our collective memory. From coordinating the 2013 “We Register. We Decide.” campaign to organizing the 2018 “Sound and Color—To Gaza” exhibition in Amman, her work fuses cultural activism with tangible support for our people. Most recently, she has been building an archive of the missing people in Gaza during the current war, ensuring their stories are heard and their cases pursued by responsible authorities.

Fatme El Bazzal is a doctoral researcher at the Bibliotheca Arabica project (2024-). She holds a Master of Arts in Information Sciences and a Bachelor of Arts in Library and Information Management from the Lebanese University. She has extensive library and archival experience, having worked as a Metadata and Reference Librarian at the Lebanese National Library, where she contributed to cataloging, policy development, and the relocation of the library’s collection. Fatme has also participated in archival projects like the Virtual Museum of Censorship with MARCH Lebanon and the Feminist Library of the Knowledge Workshop, as well as a project on the personal library and archive of the late Professor Hassan Chalabi, in Beirut. Her Ph.D. project focuses on the manuscript heritage of the Jabal ʿĀmil region, specifically the endowed collection of Asad Allāh ibn Muhammad Muʾmin al-Khātūnī al-ʿĀmilī in the Astān Quds Library, Mashhad, Iran which was donated in the year 1067 AH/1657 AD . Fatme's research explores the provenance history of this collection, placing it within the context of the migration of ʿĀmilī scholars to Safavid Iran, who attained various academic and administrative positions in the emerging Safavid state and played a significant role in reshaping the religious identity of the Safavid Empire.

Kristan Belanger is a proud member of Glooscap First Nation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science as well as a Juris Doctor from Dalhousie University and is currently pursuing a Master of Information. Kristan is dedicated to promoting a holistic understanding of the interrelated fields of law, governance, and information; her research seeks to create an understanding of Indigenous law librarianship, while working alongside Mi’kmaw legal experts, Knowledge Keepers, and communities to establish a conceptual framework for an academic Mi’kmaw law library. She also works as a research assistant at the Lnuwey Tplutaqan Wikuom (Mi’kmaw Law Lodge), where she explores how Indigenous knowledge, law, and legal information systems intersect.

Ghada Dimashk is an experienced archivist and metadata librarian specializing in Middle Eastern heritage, with a focus on preserving cultural narratives of Lebanon and Palestine. At the Palestine Land Studies Center at the American University of Beirut, Ghada has led initiatives to develop a precise cataloging and archival system, creating structured policies and a specialized list of subject headings focused on the Palestinian case. Since October 2023, she has led a project in collaboration with the Archives & Digital Media Lab (ADML) to archive social media and webpages as part of documenting the Gaza genocide and War on Lebanon. This initiative is now recognized as the first in the Arab world, and globally, to document an ongoing war on social media platforms. Ghada is an Archival & Library Fellow at the ADML; Co-Chair of the Middle East Librarians Association’s Archival Arrangement and Description in Arabic  Subgroup (ARMTAG); and a member of the organizing committee of the Archive & Heritage for Palestine Seminar Series.   From 2009 to 2023, Ghada was the Librarian at the Lebanese National Library. She holds a master's degree in Library & Information Science from the Lebanese University, where she completed a thesis project mapping the Lebanese LAM sector, and developing a pilot online portal to increase accessibility and preservation efforts.

Buck Doyle is a white settler from Winnipeg. They are a software nerd and a member of Bar None and Winnipeg Police Cause Harm. "Buck works with communities, social movements and heritage organizations across the Global South to address technical challenges and create solutions to protect and use knowledge for social justice. These include working at the ADML on projects in Lebanon and Palestine to digitally archive the ongoing genocide in Gaza as well as the larger war on Palestine and Lebanon.

Rima Ghanem is a Lebanese archivist and museum professional. Her work focuses on digital archives and collections management. Rima holds a Master in Archival Studies (MAS) from the University of British Columbia and a Master in Tourism and Cultural Management from the Saint Joseph University of Beirut. Her previous work experience includes a variety of roles within the heritage and cultural sector: she served as an educational tour guide in her home country; as Research Assistant at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and as Cultural Sector Research Analyst at a tech company specialized in information management and heritage software development. Rima currently works as an independent archivist, supporting the Taku River Tlingit First Nation archive, the Arabic Design Archive as well as other community-led initiatives and projects.

Doa Sarmad Khan  is a Pakistani architect, conservationist and archivist with a Bachelor of Architecture from the National College of Arts, Pakistan and an MA in Conservation Studies from the University of York, UK. Her research interests include displaced and fragmented colonial archives, informational inequities, and the description and reconnection of postcolonial cultural heritage information through digital means. She oversaw the digitization and redevelopment of the National College of Arts Archives in Lahore, Pakistan from 2021-2024. 

Patrick McGee is pursuing an MA in History and MLS in Information Studies at Queens College. He is a Research Assistant with the CUNY Archival Technologies Lab, an Associate Archivist working with the CUNY “Cultivating Archives and Institutional Memory” team, and a former Information Literacy Fellow with CUNY’s Library Information Literacy Advisory Committee. His interests include archival theory, political epistemology, and critical pedagogy, and he is currently researching relationships between Westphalian sovereignty, Enlightenment, and archival destruction. patrick.mcgee@archiveslab.org 

Rowan Moore (they/them) is a graduate student in the Master of Information program at Dalhousie University. They completed their Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Ottawa and worked in a federal government archive before coming to Dalhousie. In the program, they have focused on learning about archives and libraries while centering community and anti-colonial practices. They are the EDIA and Special Projects Chair for the Information Science Student Association (ISSA) and the Treasurer for the Association for Canadian Archivists (ACA) Student Chapter at Dalhousie.

Kelsey Morgan is a dedicated researcher and current Master of Information student at Dalhousie University. Having completed the International Baccalaureate program in Qatar, she pursued a bachelor’s degree in English and History from the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Kelsey then earned a Master of Arts in English from Dalhousie University. Her research focus is on decolonizing library practices, particularly through the interrogation of cataloging language. Her current thesis work examines the language used to catalog materials relating to Palestinian self-determination, with the goal of compiling a critical genealogy of work completed by Arab information professionals.

Zaynab Nemr is currently pursuing an MSc in Information Management from the Lebanese University, alongside an MSc in Environmental Geoscience and an MSc in Sustainable Blue Growth, jointly offered by the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS) and the University of Trieste. She is a researcher at the American University of Beirut, where her work focuses on mapping the dynamics of settler colonial land dispossession in Palestine. Between April 15, 2023, and May 15, 2024, she served as an archivist at the Palestine Land Studies Center at AUB, where she also held the role of GIS expert. During this time, she led multiple mapping projects, including a detailed analysis of the Israeli destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. This project involved classifying impacted sites—including schools, hospitals, and cultural heritage landmarks—using advanced polygon destruction data to precisely catalog affected locations. Her research contributions include the publication “The Environmental Impact of Single-Use Plastics in Lebanon's Tourism Sector” published in the Journal of Ecology and Natural Resources, and “Water as a Weapon: Gaza’s Struggle for Clean Water and Sanitation Amid War”, currently under review.

Alia Rezia is a PhD Candidate and instructor at the University of Maryland's College of Information. She has an academic background in anthropology and art history, and has worked in various museums and schools throughout her career. Alia's work looks at the intersection between immigrant information access, information justice, and museum studies through an anti-colonial lens. She focuses specifically on what South Asian immigrant communities in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area need from cultural heritage institutuions in their area, and asks how these institutions can better serve those needs through exhibitions, outreach, and educational programming. Alia is an active alumn and former teaching fellow of the iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3), and a doctoral mentor at EduSeed’s SisterMentors, where she mentors young girls of color in the DMV through their education journeys and into college. In addition to her academic work, Alia has published in blogs like up//root and Sapiens.

Tam Rayan is a PhD candidate in the School of Information at the University of Michigan, specializing in Archives and Digital Curation. They received their MI in Information Studies and MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Toronto. Their research is focused on deconstructing how colonialism operates through archival infrastructures as well as how to build transformative archival representations of those in diaspora. Specifically, they are interested in how to better serve and represent the recordkeeping needs of Palestinians with unique intergenerational traumas, impacted by forced migration, displacement, and exile. They are an Anti-Racist Digital Research Fellow at the University of Michigan, a former steering committee member of the SAA Archivists and Archives of Color section, and a former ARL/SAA Mosaic Fellow. Their research has been published in Across the Disciplines and Archival Science.

Andrew Sandock is an archivist based in Toronto. He holds a BA in World Islamic and Middle East Studies from McGill University and an MI from the University of Toronto. His research centres around questions of memory and resistance in Palestinian and diasporic archives, informed by work across Turtle Island and the Levant. His 2024 article, "In Search of a Liberatory Appraisal for Palestinian Archives" won the ACA Dodds Prize, and is forthcoming in Archivaria. 

Carolyn Smith is pursuing her Master of Information (MI) at Dalhousie University with the completion of the programs Archives Certificate. She holds a BA from Vancouver Island University with a history focused background. Carolyn is a current recipient of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Masters Award with her study focusing on the charting of Indigenous sovereignty within Canadian archives. Her interests lie within the areas of archives, records management, community-based practice, decolonization, memory and identity, and policy development. (Carolyn.Smith@dal.ca)

Dr. Nisha Toomey is a Desi settler based in Tkaronto, a facilitator, educator, researcher and migrant rights activist. She is Research Fellow at Myanmar Policy and Community Knowledge Hub (MyPACK) in the Asian Institute of University of Toronto, and an independent scholar. She holds a PhD in Social Justice Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her dissertation traces white supremacist and settler colonial logics in the fields of humanitarianism and international development. Nisha has articles in Society and Space Magazine, Mobilities, Critical Ethnic Studies, the International Journal of Border and Migration Studies, and book chapters in the Handbook of Qualitative Cross- Cultural Research, Indigenous Reconciliation and Decolonization, and Toward What Justice? nisha.toomey@archiveslab.org 

Emma Vibert (she/they) is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Information at Dalhousie University in Kjipuktuk. She graduated with distinction from Mount Saint Vincent University with a Bachelor of Arts in History focusing on women’s grassroots organising. They won The Walter Shelton Essay Prize in History for their paper Peace, Power, and Plutonium: How Women’s Anti Nuclear and Environmental Organizing in Nova Scotia from 1970 to 1990 Led to Future Political Organizing. She has spent most of her professional career as a legal researcher and worked as an Assistant Research Librarian at the Supreme Court of Canada. Their research focus is on epistemic oppression and suppression within archives and the ways records are disputed and displaced in times of war, conflict and insecurity.

Cameron Welsh is a Records Analyst at the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives. They hold a Master of Archival Studies from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Arts in Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies from Carleton University, and are a member of the Association of Canadian Archivists Communications Committee. Their interests include creative communication in records management and building community connections and resiliency through effective information management. They contributed to the Archives & Digital Media Lab as a Research Assistant in 2023.