Work in Common/Work Toward Commons

Our worlds, and our profession, have been reshaped not just by ongoing public health crises, but by racial and gender violence, climate disasters, political stratification, and economic upheavals. In many ways we cannot return to what was before, and perhaps—in some ways—we should not desire this return. As we reflect on the reshaping of our lives and work, we are called to ask: what are we building together?

The Program Committee encourages proposals that speak to the following conference themes. Please note that proposals do not have to fit into these themes to be considered:

• Archives and records as commons, e.g., approaches to access, governance, and maintenance; questions of ownership and property; open records legislation and policy
• Commonalities across archival work and partnerships that build on those commonalities, such as partnerships between governmental and private or community entities
• The role of archival work in maintaining the commons, including water, land, and other natural resources
• Development and management of shared systems and infrastructure
• Care, care work, and mutual aid; nurturing relationships of reciprocity
• Labor equity and collective labor
• The commons as a practice; unsettling the commons and decolonial approaches toward liberatory archival work