DAIS Speaker Series
(Data, Archives, and Information in Society)
LARC sponsors and coordinates a series of speakers and symposia called DAIS, or Data, Archives, and Information in Society. We invite speakers to the DAIS whose work advances understanding in topics related to archives, curation, data, and libraries, as it is understood and critiqued within the context of information environments and social concerns.
Upcoming speakers, dates, and talk information will be updated as information becomes available.
Winter 2026
Benjamin Lee
University of Washington
May 15, 2026
Ben Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, where he has started the Lab for Computing Cultural Heritage. Ben’s research explores how to re-imagine search and discovery for large-scale digital collections held by libraries, archives, and museums. Previously, Ben has served as an Innovator in Residence as well as a Kluge Fellow in Digital Studies at the Library of Congress. He also was the inaugural Digital Humanities Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Ben received his Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Washington, which was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in machine learning.
Marika Cifor
University of Washington
March 27, 2026
Marika Cifor is an Associate Professor in the Information School and adjunct faculty in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She is a feminist scholar of archival studies and digital studies. Her qualitative research investigates how individuals and communities marginalized by gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, disability, and/or HIV-status are represented and how they document and represent themselves through archives, data, and digital technologies. Cifor regularly teaches courses on gender, race and technology and archival studies. She mentors and works closely with iSchool students in the Informatics, MLIS, and Information Science PhD programs at University of Washington’s iSchool.
Amelia Acker
Rutgers University, New Jersey
March 13, 2026
Amelia Acker is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Her research on data management and digital preservation has been supported with funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the ACM History and Archiving Fellowship. Acker’s projects address the representation and loss of digital traces, the history of data management, and the transmission of information through time. She investigates how infrastructure and organizational practices shape the preservation, accessibility, and governance of data, with a particular focus on the impact of platforms, software, and AI on archives and digital memory. Acker is the author of Archiving Machines: From Punch Cards to Platforms (MIT, 2025), which will be the subject of this DAIS talk.
Winter 2025
Estevan Rael-Gálvez
Native Bound Unbound
April 18, 2025
Estevan Rael-Gálvez is the executive director of Native Bound Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery. Trained as an anthropologist and historian, Dr. Rael-Gálvez has served as the former Senior Vice President of Historic Sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and as the state historian of New Mexico. A native son of New Mexico, Estevan was raised on a farm and ranch stewarded by his family for multiple generations. He received his BA in English Literature and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MA and Ph.D. in American Cultures from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he completed an award-winning doctoral dissertation, the basis of a current book project.
Trevor Owens
American Institute of Physics
March 20, 2025
Trevor Owens is chief research officer at the American Institute of Physics. Prior to joining AIP, Trevor Owens was the director of Digital Services at the Library of Congress. Over the past decade, Owens has held progressively senior roles, advancing vision and strategies for the future of research organizations. While serving at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), he was responsible for convening representatives from libraries, associations, funders and technology innovators to establish the National Digital Platform framework. Through his work at the Library of Congress, IMLS and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, Owens gained extensive experience and background in history of science research, library and archives leadership and management, and applied social science research. He has a particular expertise and interest in the power of digital assets and content, which aligns with AIP’s strategic vision. And in 2023, he served as a member of AIP’s Blue-Ribbon Panel engaged to recommend a strategic vision for the future of AIP’s history, library and archives programs.
We gratefully acknowledge additional support for this talk provided by the University Library and the University of Michigan Press.
Thuy Vo Dang
University of California at Los Angeles
February 20, 2025
Thuy Vo Dang (she/her) is assistant professor of information studies and Asian American studies at UCLA. She holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego and a B.A. in English and Asian American Studies from Scripps College. Her previous role was curator for the UCI Libraries Southeast Asian Archive and research librarian for Asian American studies. With research and teaching expertise in oral history, Southeast Asian diaspora, community archives and cultural memory, Thuy brings an interdisciplinary approach to co-creating digital humanities and archival documentation projects with educators and community-based organizations. She is co-author of the books A People’s Guide to Orange County (2022) and Vietnamese in Orange County (2015). Thuy serves on the board of directors for Arts OC and the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association.
Winter 2024
Jarrett Drake
Harvard University
March 26, 2024
Jarrett Martin Drake is an educator, ethnographer and organizer who is currently a PhD candidate in anthropology at Harvard University. Prior to pursuing a doctoral degree, Drake obtained a BA in history and an MS in information science with a concentration in archives from the University of Michigan School of Information, during and after which he worked as an archivist and librarian in multiple institutional and non-institutional contexts, most meaningfully with A People’s Archive of Police Violence in Cleveland. Drake was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, where he graduated from The Benjamin Banneker Achievement Center.
We gratefully acknowledge additional financial support for this talk, which was provided by the U-M Museum Studies Program.
Emily Drabinski
Queens (NY) University, President of the American Library Association (2023-2024)
February 6, 2024
Emily Drabinski is associate professor in the Queens (NY) College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. She serves as 2023-2024 president of the American Library Association.
Details page · Media feature · Youtube recording
We gratefully acknowledge additional financial support for this talk, which was provided by the William W. Bishop Fund.
Fall 2023
Beth Patin
Syracuse University
December 7, 2023
Beth Patin is an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. Her research, teaching, and service all center information justice and equity, by investigating epistemicide and epistemic justice, community resilience and crisis informatics and cultural responsiveness in an effort to work towards a more just community. Currently, she is working on projects about epistemicide (the silencing, killing, or devaluing of knowledge systems) and digital humanities and the Civil Rights Movement.
André Odendaal and Anthea Josias
University of the Western Cape & University of Michigan
November 17, 2023
André Odendaal is the vice-chancellor’s writer-in-residence and an honorary professor in history and heritage studies at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He received his first degrees from Stellenbosch University and his PhD from Cambridge University. Thereafter, he spent 13 years at the University of the Western Cape, where he started and directed the pioneering Mayibuye Center for History and Culture in South Africa, with its large multi-media archive on apartheid and the liberation struggle. Here he launched the Mayibuye History and Literature Series and, as joint series editor, oversaw the publication of 85 books on South African history (including the re-issuing of many titles of the previously banned International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa).
Anthea Josias, PhD, is a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Information, where she teaches courses in preservation, program assessment and data science. Formerly, she was the archives and collections manager at the Mayibuye Center and the Robben Island Museum.
Diana Marsh
University of Maryland
November 10, 2023
Diana E. Marsh is an assistant professor of archives and digital curation at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies (iSchool) who investigates how heritage institutions communicate with the public and communities. Her current research focuses on improving discovery and access to colonially-held archives for Native American and Indigenous communities. Previously, she completed her PhD in anthropology (museum anthropology) at the University of British Columbia, an MPhil in social anthropology with a museums and heritage focus at the University of Cambridge in 2010, and a BFA in visual arts and photography at the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University in 2009. Her recent work has appeared in JASIST, The American Archivist, Archival Science, and Archivaria, and her book, From Extinct Monsters to Deep Time: Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian’s Fossil Halls was released in paperback with Berghahn Books in fall 2022.
Gracen Brilmyer
McGill University
October 13, 2023
Gracen Brilmyer (they/them) is a Disabled researcher working at the intersection of feminist disability studies and archival studies. Their work investigates the erasure of disabled people in archives primarily within the history of natural history museums and colonial histories as well as how disabled people experience themselves in archival material. They are currently assistant professor at McGill University and director of the Disability Archives Lab. Find a bibliography for Dr. Brilmyer’s seminar talk at disabilityarchiveslab.com/crippingabsence.
Winter 2023
J. J. Ghaddar, PhD
Dalhousie University
April 18, 2023
Dr. J.J. Ghaddar is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Management at Dalhousie University in Kjipuktuk, Miꞌkmaꞌki, the homeland of the Mi’kmaq also known as Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She recently completed a Government of Canada SSHRC-funded postdoctoral fellowship working with Raymond Frogner (National Center for Truth & Reconciliation) and Dr. Greg Bak (History Department) at the University of Manitoba. Ghaddar holds a PhD from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, where she completed a Master of Information. Her work has appeared in premier journals and publications, including Archival Science (2020; 2016); Library Quarterly (2017); and Archivaria (2016).
Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, PhD
Former Director General of the Research and Documentation Center on Genocide at the Rwanda National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG)
March 9-10, 2023
With a PhD in education from the University of Geneva, I have substantial experience working with the United Nations, international non-governmental organizations, non-profit organizations, and governments on projects related to equitable and sustainable education curricula. As the Director General of the Research and Documentation Center on Genocide at the Rwanda National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), I managed and led research projects as well as designed, implemented, monitored, and assessed projects related to the Genocide against the Tutsi.
Fall 2022
Wendy Duff
Professor and Dean, University of Toronto Faculty of Information
November 4, 2022
“Supporting Researchers Investigating Difficult Histories: A Relationship-Based Access System”
Wendy Duff is a professor and Dean in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto where she teaches courses in the areas of archival access and community archives. Her research and publications have focused on archival access, archives and social justice, and archival users. In her current research she is exploring the emotional impact of archival work.