Teaching Café: Democracy’s Archives, Archiving Democracy
Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2025
Time: 1pm-3pm EST
Location: Hybrid | McMaster University, CNH 607B & Virtual via Zoom
Join us for our first-ever hybrid Teaching Café on Democracy’s Archives, Archiving Democracy!
As a lived, contested, and evolving practice that extends beyond formal institutions and takes shape in our food systems, cultural practices, clothing, workplaces, homes, schools, and our belief systems, across formal and intimately informal spaces, democracy leaves traces in diverse and unexpected archives. Together, we will examine these dispersed sites of democratic life, and converge our knowledge of how democratic values and struggles are recorded, preserved, and reimagined despite state violence and censorship. We will also consider the role of archives themselves, how they can preserve collective memory, support representational justice, and be reconfigured through open access, inclusive curatorial practices, digital platforms, citizen-led initiatives, and decolonial approaches to archives and memory.
Featuring Melissa J. Nelson (Archivist, Educator, and Community Connector, Black Memory Collective), Krista McCracken (Public Historian and Curator, Algoma University), Michele Antoinette Johnson (Professor and Associate Dean, York University), Myron Groover (Archives and Rare Books Librarian, McMaster University), Denali YoungWolfe (PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia) and Roberto Falanga, José Ribeiro, and João Moniz (Inovações Democráticas em Portugal, Universidade de Lisboa, and INCITE-DEM), this Teaching Café will reflect on where democracy resides, how it is remembered, and how archives can both safeguard and reshape its future.
This is an active workshop with facilitated deliberative activities. No experience is required, we welcome disciplines, practitioners, and peoples from diverse perspectives and lived experience. We hope to see you there!
Speaker Bios
Melissa J. Nelson is an archivist, educator, and community connector based in Toronto, Canada. Her work centres Black being and belonging in the archives to support collective healing and liberation movements. She is guided by critical and creative praxis to reimagine the Archives as sites of Black joy. In 2023, Melissa was the recipient of the Association of Canadian Archivists’ New Professional Award and Ancestry Award. Melissa is the author of “Archiving Hate: Racist Materials in Archives.” Melissa is the Founder and Creative Director of the Black Memory Collective — a community for interdisciplinary Black memory workers in Canada. She is also the Creator and Host of the podcast Archives & Things. Melissa holds a Master of Information Studies from McGill University. She received a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in History, with a minor in Sociology, from Carleton University.
Myron Groover, MA (Hons), MAS, MLIS is the Archives and Rare Books Librarian at McMaster University. His interests include humanism, book history, the material culture of text, and the history of ideas. He is particularly interested in how geopolitical, economic, and environmental factors affect the preservation and transmission of text through time. He specializes in teaching through the medium of rare books, archival sources, and other primary documents.
Denali YoungWolfe is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on Indigenous nationhood and relationality, using digital mapping to explore narratives of role models, inspirations, and heroes within Indigenous communities. Raised in a Nêhiyaw and Saulteaux family from Muskowekwan, Saskatchewan, she works closely with her community to amplify stories celebrating Indigeneity. Her work aims to contribute to the larger conversation on Indigenous identity, culture, and nationhood.
Michele Antoinette Johnson is the Associate Dean, Students of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University. She holds a BA. Hons, M.Phil. (U.W.I.), M.A and Ph.D. in History from Johns Hopkins University and has taught in the Department of History at York University since July 2002. She has served the York community in a variety of capacities, including as the coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Programme, as York’s affirmative action officer, and as the director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas (2013-2018). Her research interests and publications reflect Jamaican cultural history, and the histories of gender relations, race/racialization, labour, domestic slavery, and domestic service in Jamaica and Canada.
Krista McCracken is a public historian, archivist, and education sector leader with over fifteen years of experience advancing equity, digital transformation, and community-driven memory work. Since 2010, they have worked at the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University, where their leadership has shaped award-winning archival initiatives, collaborative partnerships, and sector-wide approaches to inclusive practice. Grounded in decolonial and anti-oppressive frameworks, Krista's work centers ethical knowledge governance, inclusive policy development, and sustainable systems of care. As an elected union leader, they bring experience in organizational governance, democratic processes, and transparent, equity-informed decision-making to their work. Krista is committed to co-creating systems that foster justice, healing, and lasting structural change.
Roberto Falanga is an Assistant Research Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon. His main research interests are participatory policymaking, democratic innovations and urban governance. He's a member of national and international projects and currently coordinates the a comprehensive study on democratic innovations in Portugal, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
José Duarte Ribeiro is an Assistant Professor at the Sociology department of Middle East Technical University in Ankara. He is also an Associated Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, where he works on democratic innovations and citizen participation. His research interests also include social movements, the commons and participatory governance in rural territories. He holds the early-career seat on the Executive Committee of the European Society for Rural Sociology.
João Moniz holds a Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Aveiro. Currently he is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon currently working on the topic of democratic innovations and citizen participation in policymaking under the Inclusive Citizenship in a World in Transformation: Co-Designing for Democracy (INCITE-DEM) research project. His career includes several participations in national and international research projects. His research, as co-author, have been published in journals such as South European Society and Politics and Representation.
Participedia’s Teaching Cafés provide a space for community members, practitioners, and students to come together and develop teaching and learning practices. Please direct any questions to info@participedia.net.
