Colleen Joy Shogan

Born and raised in Greater Pittsburgh, Shogan was encouraged to read mysteries by her late mother, Patricia, and started with books from the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.^[1] Shogan graduated from Norwin High School.^[2]

She was a first-generation college student in her family and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Boston College and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in American politics from Yale University.^[1][3]

After earning her PhD, Shogan worked as an associate professor of government and politics at George Mason University.^[4] She is the author of Moral Rhetoric of American Presidents, a book on the rhetorical presidency. Shogan later joined the Library of Congress, where she served as assistant deputy for collections and deputy director of the Congressional Research Service. Shogan worked as the vice chair of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission and taught as an adjunct professor in the government department at Georgetown University.^[5][6][7]

She is the author of eight murder mystery novels, featuring Washington congressional aide Kit Marshall,^[8] with titles that include Stabbing in the Senate, Homicide in the House, and Larceny at the Library.^[1] "They're puzzles, and I like to solve puzzles," she said in 2023 about her novels.^[9]

On August 13, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Shogan to be 11th Archivist of the United States.^[6]

The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held two hearings to consider Shogan's nomination. The first hearing was held on September 21, 2022, and the panel were deadlocked on her nomination by a 7–7 party-line vote and did not advance Shogan's nomination.^[10] Second hearing was held February 28, 2023.^[11] On March 15, 2023, the committee advanced Shogan’s nomination by an 8–4 vote.^[12]

During the hearings, Shogan stated that she would not publish the Equal Rights Amendment as part of the United States Constitution, stating that the job of the archivist is to publish constitutional amendments following proper ratification, not to decide when an amendment is published,^[13] in line with a Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memo on the subject in January 2020.^[14] Shogan's views were criticized by the ERA Coalition.^[15] Shogan also pledged to reduce the backlog of "over 300,000 veterans’ records requests", calling it the "most important discrete problem" facing her,^[16] and said she would be looking for ways to declassify older historical records.^[17][16] She further promised transparency on records related to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago,^[18] committed to working with U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff on Civil Rights Cold Cases,^[19] stated that she would "welcome all Americans to the National Archives" if confirmed,^[20] and said she would serve in a "nonpartisan, apolitical capacity".^[21] In her opening statement at the September 2021 hearing, she also pledged to find "creative ways" to make the National Archives more efficient, build upon existing public-private partnerships, and engage underrepresented groups in "meaningful ways".^[22]

On May 4, 2023, the United States Senate invoked cloture on Shogan’s nomination by a 53–44 vote.^[23] On May 10, 2023, Shogan was confirmed as the 11th Archivist of the United States by a 52–45 vote,^[24][25] with her term beginning the following week.^[6] She was sworn in and began work on May 17, 2023, with her first briefing focused on addressing the "backlog of veterans’ records" and speaking with National Personnel Records Center leaders.^[26] On January 24, 2024, the National Archives announced the elimination of the "pandemic-related backlog of veteran records" at the National Personnel Records Center.^[27] Shogan is the first woman appointed as Archivist of the United States.^[28]

In October 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that she spoke at a private gathering at the National Archives Building, hosted by Stand Together, an American philanthropic organization founded by libertarian billionaire Charles Koch,^[29] and that she emphasized the "importance of using America’s founding documents to teach and inspire."^[30]

In October 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that Shogan and her top advisers had censored numerous displays at the National Archives' museum in an effort to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history, according to documents, and current and former employees. According to the article, Shogan and her top aides, like Ellis Brachman, ordered the removal of images of Martin Luther King, Jr., Dolores Huerta, and Minnie Spotted-Wolf from the Discovery Center wing of the National Archives Museum, images by Dorothea Lange of Japanese-American concentration camps, cut information about the negative environmental effects of coal mining and the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese-Americans from various exhibits, and directed employees to find "success stories about white people." Shogan was alleged to ask why a museum exhibit on Western expansion was centered on Indigenous people, ordered records showing treaties in which Indigenous tribes ceded "their lands to the U.S. government," and directed that a patent for the contraceptive pill be replaced by a patent for the bump stock, and reportedly said that exhibits shouldn't be pushing a "partisan agenda." It was also asserted that some senior officials that had resigned had blamed Shogan's leadership, with one long-time employee for the archives filing a whistleblower complaint, claiming that "Shogan abused her authority and engaged in censorship", and that she had done too much to "appease Republicans."^[30] Brachman asserted, according to Current Affairs, that the story is inaccurate, claiming that "balance was missing in the early planning of some of the new galleries here, and we have had to make some difficult decisions during the planning process" and that some people did not "want to do the hard work to address the nuanced and many layered facts of American history."^[31] Brachman also told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that "the story is not accurate."^[32]

Historians and commentators responded to The Wall Street Journal's reporting. The president of Win Without War, Stephen Miles, argued that Shogan's reported action was, "preemptively self-censoring and hiding essential parts of any honest telling of American history," and called it a dereliction of the agency's mission. Author David Neiwert said that Shogan and her advisors need to be replaced, and that she is, "making a travesty of American history." Historian Harvey G. Cohen echoed the same sentiment, stating that the National Archives should be focused on "preserving and presenting the truth" and Timothy D. Snyder called Shogan's reported conduct, "anticipatory obedience." Former Obama administration official Brandon Friedman and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Brunch accused Shogan and her advisors of, "obeying fascism in advance."^[33] In an article in Current Affairs, Nathan J. Robinson argued that the National Archives Museum was backsliding into "a sanitized mythological retelling of American history," asserted that Shogan is "intensely worried about being accused of partisanship" and argued that the Archivist of the United States should be "committed to telling a truthful story that reflects what actually happened."^[31] On November 1st, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Congressional Black Caucus chairs Judy Chu, Nanette Barragán, and Steven Horsford issued a statement which criticized NARA's reported actions, saying that that the agency was "preemptively appeas[ing]...conservative interests" and aligning with far-right "book ban movements nationwide", and urged Shogan to restore these references and exhibits to ensure that "NARA and the National Archives Museum tell the full and most accurate story of our nation."^[34]

On October 30, 2024, Shogan issued a response to the Wall Street Journal's reporting. She restated her "commitment to leading NARA without partisanship or ideology," asserted that federal employees are not there to "promote or share our personal interpretation of the records" but are there, in her view, to "preserve, protect, and share the records with all Americans". She also called the article "misinformed" and said she "strongly disagree[d]" with it, arguing that the article was based on "anonymous complaints about that work and my leadership of the agency" and stated that NARA will remain, in her view, "thoughtful in how we engage with our past and focused on fostering understanding and dialogue," and reprinted her statement which had been sent to the Wall Street Journal.^[32][35]

Shogan is married to Rob Raffety, the internal communications director for Stand Together.^[30]

The Washington Whodunit series: