The Investigators
We are an intergenerational group of archivists inspired by David B. Gracy II’s work and service to the profession. Our partnership began in 2015 as part of the Archives Leadership Institute at Luther College, and together, we served on SAA Council from 2017-2020. We have 40 years of experience in the profession and have witnessed, been impacted by, and directly involved with some of the archival revolutions that emerged in the focus group sessions.
Steven D. Booth, FSAA
Archive Manager of the Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) Collection
The Getty Research Institute
Steven D. Booth (he/him) is an archivist, researcher, and member of the Blackivists, a collective of trained Black memory workers in the Chicagoland area. He is currently Archive Manager of the Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) Archive, which is co-owned by the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Steven is an alumnus of Simmons College (now University) with a concentration in Archives Management and participated in the 2015 Archives Leadership Institute cohort. He is an active member of the Society of American Archivists, having served on Council from 2017-2020 and in 2022, was inducted as a Distinguished Fellow.
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Brenda S. Gunn, CA FSAA
Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Preservation
The University of Virginia Library
Brenda S. Gunn (she/her) is an archivist, public historian, and researcher. She is currently the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Preservation at the University of Virginia Library, where she serves on the library’s Senior Leadership Team, and is the director of the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture. Prior to joining the UVA Library, Brenda was the Janey Slaughter Briscoe Archivist and Director of Research and Collections at the University of Texas’ Briscoe Center for American History.
Brenda is a certified archivist and served on the Society of American Archivists’ council from 2017-2019. She was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Society of American Archivists in 2017. Still active in SAA, Brenda is the SAA liaison to the International Council of Archivists’ Forum of Professional Associations. After participating in the 2010 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute, she joined the steering committee for ALI and served from 2013-2018. In additional to the Archival Revolutions project, Brenda is a co-PI for the Mellon Foundation-funded project “On These Grounds”. Brenda and Steven will be publishing their Archival Revolutions research in 2024 as part of the CLIR Pocket Burgundy series.
Brenda taught a course on Archives and Society in the Historic Preservation program at the University of Mary Washington in the Spring of 2024.
PUBLICATIONS
Appiah, Krystal and Brenda Gunn. “Supporting Teaching with Primary Sources” Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2020. https://doi.org/10.18130/v3-z8bd-e097
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Archival Revolutions 