Redefining Archival Reference: Relationship-based Reference¹

Wendy Duff is a professor at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. She is the principal investigator for a SSHRC-Insight Grant-funded project entitled “Emotional Responses in Archival Work.” Recently, she conducted impact studies of the Ontario Jewish Archives, the Living Archives on Eugenics in Western Canada, and the lack of records on Scottish care-leavers. Her previous research and publications focused on the information-seeking behavior of archival users, archival access, social justice, and the evaluation of archives. In 2016, she won the Fellows’ Ernst Posner Award for her coauthored paper, “New Uses for Old Records: A Rhizomatic Approach to Archival Access.”

Jessica Ho is a graduate of the master of information program at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information, concentrating in library and information science/archives and records management. She joined the “Emotional Responses in Archival Work” project as a research assistant in 2021. Her background work in athletics and not-for-profit work informs her research interests, so she is eager to bring her commitment to just, equitable access and meaningful participation to the realm of GLAMs. She completed her BA (Hons) in communication studies at York University in Toronto.

Christa Sato is a lecturer at University of Northern British Columbia's Northwest Campus (Terrace) and a PhD candidate in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Her primary areas of interests involve working with individuals and families, particularly from racialized communities, who have been impacted by trauma in the areas of child welfare, intimate partner violence, and mental health. Her doctoral research focuses on exploring how diasporic Filipino/a/x in Canada make meaning of suffering, resistance, and healing from intergenerational trauma.

Henria Aton is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. Her research focuses on archives and archival practices in postcolonial and postwar Sri Lanka, where she worked as an archivist for two years. Her work pushes against archival theory in the context of postcolonial South Asia, through the lens of feminist South Asian activism-scholarship. Aton is a research assistant on the SSHRC-Insight Grant-funded project “Emotional Responses in Archival Work” and has extensive experience interviewing individuals, families, and archives professionals about archives of the disappeared and trauma. She holds an MA in South Asian religions from McGill University.

Peter Deziak has experienced the joys of working in a variety of archives and records management roles over the past decade, from academic and corporate settings to county museums and libraries. He earned his master of information from the University of Toronto in 2022, where he also worked as a research assistant on the “Emotional Responses in Archival Work” project. He currently works as a public records analyst at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He maintains an active interest in medicine, queer histories, and ephemera in archives.

Cheryl Regehr is the past vice-president and provost of the University of Toronto and a professor of social work with cross appointments to the Faculty of Law and the Institute for Medical Sciences. Previously, she served as director of the Crisis Response Team at Pearson International Airport and was a member of the Mental Health Advisory for the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada; the Canadian Institutes for Health Research Mental Health Advisory Group for COVID-19; and the Center for Research Libraries. Her current research involves traumatic exposures in the workplace and the impact of stress and trauma on professional decision-making.