The Next Archival Revolution: Memory Work in the Age of AI

In his 1983 SAA presidential address, David B. Gracy II proclaimed that the archival profession was experiencing its “first archival revolution.” Nearly four decades later, Brenda Gunn and Steven Booth ask the question, “If there was a first, then what are the subsequent revolutions?” The Archival Revolutions Project explores the history of archival revolutions to understand their impacts on the field, including paradigmatic shifts in theory, ideas, practice, and perceptions.

Brenda Gunn is the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Preservation at the University of Virginia (UVA). Currently, Brenda is the 2026-27 President-Elect of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). She is also the current director of the Archives Leadership Institute 2024-2026. Previously, she held leadership positions in archival organizations at the state, regional, and national levels, including a term as President of the Academy of Certified Archivists, a three-year term on SAA’s Council, and a term on SAA’s Foundation board. Brenda is a Distinguished Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Her research interests include archival revolutions, leadership capacity building, crisis collecting, trauma-informed archives, and the history of childhood.

Schedule of Events

10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. | Welcome + Introduction10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. | The Next Archival Revolution: Memory Work in the Age of AI12 p.m. - 1 p.m. | Lunch and lightning talks from CNY Humanities Corridor partners.Speakers

Jeff Suszczynski, Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) pilot, University of RochesterJoe Donnelly, JSTOR Seeklight AI-metadata pilot, Colgate UniversitySteve Galbraith & Amelia Fontanel, A GenAI Chatbot and Interpretive Podcast at the Cary​ Collection, Rochester Institute of TechnologyThis event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the CNY Humanities Corridor AI, Archives, and Museums Working Group and the University Libraries