Panel to Discuss Research in Western Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections on Friday, Nov. 21

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Panel to Discuss Research in Western Libraries' Archives & Special Collections on Friday, Nov. 21

November 12, 2025

Simon Fraser University's Sara Ng and WWU Professor of Journalism Derek Moscato will present "Scholars in the Archives" at 4 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21 in the Wilson 4 Central Reading Room.

The event is free and open to the public.

Ng and Moscato, who were named the Archives & Special Collections Distinguished Speakers and 2025 James W. Scott Fellows, will showcase research they conducted while in residency at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies during Spring and Summer, 2025. The Center houses nearly four hundred archival collections documenting the region's past and present, including collections of personal, family, and political papers, organizational and business records, and wide-ranging formats including correspondence, photographs, maps, oral histories, and audio-visual materials.

Sara Ng has a doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Washington. She is a former visiting professor at Western Washington University and current professor of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University. Ng's fellowship research uses applied linguistics methods to study migration patterns, and cultural and linguistic diversity for Chinese migrant workers in the late 19th and early 20th century Pacific Northwest.

Derek Moscato has a doctorate from the University of Oregon, where he examined environmental activism and global resources extraction issues through the lenses of media and advocacy. He is a professor in the Journalism and Canadian-American Studies programs at Western Washington University. Moscato's fellowship research examines the nuclear freeze movement in Whatcom County during the 1980s, including internal organizing, media engagement, outreach to Bellingham's sister city of Nakhodka, Russia, and strategic representations of the nuclear disarmament issue in the Pacific Northwest.

Christina Keppie, director of the Center for Canadian-American Studies and a professor of French at Western, will moderate the session.

This talk is co-sponsored by Western Libraries Archives & Special Collections, Western's departments of Linguistics, Journalism, and History, and the Center for Canadian-American Studies. It is offered as part of the James W. Scott Regional Research Fellowship, awarded annually to scholars who conduct significant research using archival holdings at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. Funds are in honor of the late Dr. James W. Scott, a noted scholar of the Pacific Northwest region, and a founder and first director of the Center.

For more information about this event, contact CPNWS Archivist Ruth Steele at [email protected], or (360) 650-7747.