Investigating the Archive: American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry

Kara Johnson received her PhD in English and a certificate in Gender Studies from Northwestern University in 2017.

An award-winning teacher and former professional dancer and teaching artist, Kara was Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Gender Studies and a faculty member of Chicago Field Studies at Northwestern before joining the Newberry, first as Program Assistant in the Smith Center for the History of Cartography, and then as Manager and Director of Teacher Programs. She also has extensive experience working at various educational nonprofit institutions in the Chicago area, including Open Books and The Odyssey Project.

Analú María López (Guachichil/Xi’úi) is the Ayer Librarian and Assistant Curator of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library. As the Ayer Librarian and Assistant Curator, she helps steward the Indigenous studies collection while guiding library users through, connecting them with, and interpreting materials linked to the Indigenous Studies collection. She is interested in uplifting historically underrepresented Indigenous narratives dealing with identity, language, and decolonization. She is also passionate about intentional community collaborations for access to materials within colonial institutions, and the preservation, revitalization, and instruction of Indigenous languages. She holds a Master of Library and Information Sciences with a certificate in Archives and Cultural Heritage Resources and Services from Dominican University and a Bachelor of Arts in Photography with a minor in Latin-American Studies from Columbia College Chicago.

Mrs. López began her career with the Newberry in 2004. After working for other libraries and museums in Chicago for 13 years, Mrs. López returned to the library in her current role in September 2017.

Lisa Schoblasky is the Instruction and Outreach Librarian at the Newberry Library and is committed to finding new and exciting ways to connect the public with primary source materials.

She has worked at the Newberry for over 20 years as the Reference Librarian, General Collections Services Librarian, and Special Collections Services Librarian before taking on her current role in September 2022.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English with an Emphasis on Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Master of Library and Information Sciences from Dominican University.

The Newberry does not have visitor parking, but there is street parking available. There is also a parking garage located at 100 W Chestnut, for which we can provide a validation. The Library is located near the Clark/Division Red Line stop, as well as the #22 and #36 buses.

Masks are optional.

This event is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.