The fight against erasure is a critical effort to preserve the identities, narratives, and histories of marginalized communities. This talk explores two interconnected aspects of this struggle: the evolving dynamics between "modern" and "traditional" archiving and the challenges they face in our time especially when it comes to the role of archiving as protector of identity and collector of the memory in our modern time.

Have you ever stopped to wonder what happens to archives all along the history till our day? Who decides what gets remembered and what disappears into the void? Who controls the archive, and whose narratives are given priority in shaping collective memory? These are fundamental questions that underline the power dynamics embedded in archiving, as well as the systemic biases that can perpetuate erasure.

Our speaker is Ghada Dimashk.

Ghada is an experienced Archivist and Metadata Librarian, specializing in Middle Eastern heritage with a focus on preserving and cataloguing cultural heritage of Lebanon and Palestine. Currently serving as a Librarian and Archivist at the Palestine Land Studies Center (PLSC) at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Her work includes developing structured policies and a specialized thesaurus focused on Palestinian and Lebanese heritage, as well as archiving social media documentation of the Gaza war, recognized as the first real-time social media archiving project during an ongoing war. She was the Librarian at the Lebanese National Library. She holds a master’s degree in library & information management from the Lebanese University, where she completed a thesis project mapping the Lebanese Libraries, Archives & Museums sector, and developing a sample online portal to increase accessibility and preservation efforts.