Heather MacNeil

Heather MacNeil is a professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, where she teaches courses in archival theory and method, and histories of records and recordkeeping. She holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Guelph (1980), an MA in English from Simon Fraser University (1984), a Master of Archival Studies from the University of British Columbia (1987), and a PhD in interdisciplinary studies (law, history, and archival studies) from UBC (1999). Her early career included roles as an archivist at the University of Toronto Archives and the National Archives of Canada (BC region) from 1992 to 1995, and Project Coordinator for the Bureau of Canadian Archivists’ Planning Committee on Descriptive Standards from 1988 to 1992. After completing her PhD, she joined the faculty of the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at UBC, chairing its Master of Archival Studies Program from 2005 to 2008. In 2008, she joined the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information.

Professor MacNeil’s research centers on archival histories and theories, archival representational practices, cross-disciplinary perspectives on record trustworthiness, and histories and theories of knowledge organization in archives and museums. Her influential publications include books such as Trusting Records: Legal, Historical, and Diplomatic Perspectives (2000), Without Consent: The Ethics of Disclosing Personal Information in Public Archives (1992), and as co-editor, Currents of Archival Thinking (2010, second edition 2017) and Engaging with Records and Archives: Histories and Theories (2017). Key articles feature “Archivalterity: Rethinking Original Order” (Archivaria 66, 2008), which received the Hugh A. Taylor Prize in 2010, and “Tacit Narratives in the Manuscript Collections of Matthew Parker and Robert Cotton” (Archivaria 96, 2023), awarded the W. Kaye Lamb Prize and the Archival History Article Award in 2024. She has earned major honors including the James J. Talman Award (2015), Fellow of the Association of Canadian Archivists (2011), UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies Distinguished Alumna award (1996), and Archivaria W. Kaye Lamb Prize (2004). MacNeil served as General Editor of Archivaria (2014-2015), contributed to numerous ACA committees including the Ad Hoc Ethics Committee, and co-founded the International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (I-CHORA) in 2003. Her scholarship has shaped archival theory, descriptive standards, privacy, and digital record trustworthiness.