Newspapers have long documented events both major and mundane, and their archives play a vital role in sustaining — and challenging — collective memory. This round table brings together journalists and archivists to discuss how a comprehensive understanding of a community’s history supports inclusive journalism and promotes civic life. 

Moderator:

• Meg Heckman is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Northeastern. She is an award-winning writer, educator and scholar who pursues two distinct research streams: feminist media history and contemporary local news sustainability. She is the author of Political Godmother: Nackey Scripps Loeb and the Newspaper That Shook the Republican Party (University of Nebraska Press, 2020), which examines how the career of newspaper publisher and conservative activist Nackey Scripps Loeb foreshadowed the modern hyperpartisan media ecosystem. She is also involved in several ongoing projects that explore how AI and other computational methods can help surface more inclusive historical narratives.

Panelists:

• André Stark is an Emmy-winning writer, director and producer. He recently became COO and co-owner of Bostons oldest black owned newspaper, the Bay State Banner. Stark has been involved with television and educational programming for more than a quarter century, first at WGBH and later at the Chedd-Angier Lewis Production Company in Watertown and the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University.

• Molly Brown is the Reference and Outreach Archivist at Northeastern University’s Archives and Special Collections and serves as co-chair of the Teaching with Primary Sources roundtable for the New England Archivists. The goal of her work in archival reference, outreach, and instruction is to make archives as accessible as possible and to embed all reference and public services with an ethics of care that moves beyond transactional research.