AM9: Beyond the Basics of DEIB: From Conversations to Sustainable Change in Museums and Archives

Collaborative Goals

We seek practical ways to include underrepresented individuals and communities in museum and archive work. After a hybrid kickoff session (at RIT and online) and two meet-and-greet sessions at Syracuse and RIT, the attention shifts to advocacy and action through the creation of the first of a series of PDFs or interactive publications that identify practical solutions to diversifying the pipeline from education to employment in the field.

• Examine how institutional genealogy and academic norms (i.e., unpaid internships; paying for credits to undertake an internship) exploit college students and exclude those who lack the financial means to support themselves without pay.
• Develop a community of practice around advocacy on issues that critical questions facing students enrolled in degree programs and those working in nested institutions within academic institutions and communicating real needs and practical solutions to partner institutions (i.e., archives and museums in the region).
• Build a Humanities Corridor network of GLAM professionals, faculty, and students who are interested in advocating for and advancing DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) by connecting the Emerging Museum Professionals Network based at Syracuse University (and the only chapter in NY north of the City) with undergraduate and graduate students at museum studies and similarly-framed academic degree programs in the Humanities Corridor region with working museum professionals and museum studies faculty.
• Create the first of a series of PDFs/interactive tools that identify practical solutions to effect change.