Celebrating a Decade of Archival Education and Research: The Tenth Annual Archival Education and Research Institute

Abstract On July 9–13, 2018, the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, hosted the tenth annual Archival Education and Research Institute (AERI). A week-long institute designed to strengthen archival education and research and support academic cohort-building and mentoring, AERI is open to all academic faculty and students working in archival studies, both nationally and internationally, as well as others engaged in archival education, research, and scholarship, broadly conceived. Attended by researchers, educators, doctoral students, and students enrolled in the AERI-affiliated Emerging Archival Scholars Program (EASP), this tenth anniversary gathering marked the Institute’s first meeting in the Southeast. Alabama provided a valuable lens for considering critical archival issues: discussions of memory, community activism, and representation were particularly vivid in a region that continues to consider its past, and its continued influence on present social, political, and economic environments. In this introduction, the Co-Chair of the Institute and Guest Editor of this issue, Tonia Sutherland, provides a brief overview of the conference highlights and introduces the papers presented in the Special Issue.