Speakers
Keynotes
(he/him)
Howard University
Speaker Bio for Brandon Nightingale
Brandon Nightingale is the Senior Project Manager of the Black Press Archives Digitization Project at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University and a PhD student in the Department of History. He holds a BA in History from the University of Central Florida, an MA in Public History from UCF, and an MS in Information Science from Florida State University. At MSRC, he leads a multi-year effort to digitize, preserve, and expand access to one of the largest and most significant collections of Black newspapers in the world. His work focuses on Black print culture, archival preservation, digital access, and the role of technology in shaping historical memory. His dissertation examines the institutional history of the Black Press Archives, its connections to Pan-African thought, and its impact on public understanding of Black life.
(he/him)
Cornell University
Speaker Bio for Dr. J. Nathan Matias
Dr. J. Nathan Matias (@natematias@social.coop, @natematias.bsky.social) is a computer scientist and social scientist who organizes citizen behavioral science for a safer, fairer, more understanding Internet. A Guatemalan-American, Nathan is founder of the Citizens and Technology Lab and an assistant professor in the Cornell University Department of Communication. Matias has worked with online communities around the world to test effective ways for people to come together to create, maintain, and protect public goods online. He also studies the science of freedom of expression and diversity in knowledge-making endeavors. His work in design has received awards from FastCompany, and his research and advocacy has received awards from the Association for Computing Machinery and the Mozilla Foundation. Matias has published scholarship in journals including Nature, Science, and PNAS. His journalism has been published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Adventure Cyclist Magazine, and many others.