Our Team

Amelia Acker
Associate Professor

Amelia Acker is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the School of Information. Her research on data archives, cultures of computing, and preservation has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Acker’s current research focuses on cultures of mobile computing, emerging digital preservation models, data literacy, data durability, and metadata standards for exchange between private and public archives.

Krishna Akhil Kumar Adavi is a graduate student at the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the platform economy, and technology startups in India

Yubing Tian is a PhD Candidate at the University of Washington’s Information School. Her research interests include data infrastructures and visualization studies.

Sarika is a postdoctoral fellow on the Afterlives Project with Dr. Acker and Dr. Finn. She recently received her PhD from the School of Information at Syracuse University. Her dissertation examined the institutional effects of the Report on the Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure established by the National Science Foundation in 2003 using theories of institutionalization and institutional logics to explain how data integration became a legitimate practice in the field of ecology. She is interested in data polices and their intended and unintended outcomes.

Arlo is an undergraduate History student at the University of Texas. His interests include digitization, revision practices in archives, and accessibility in information science. He is currently working on a digital asset archiving project with the Texas Freedom Network and a children’s book with Robin Davis of the Bullock Texas State History Museum.

Zahir Shaikh is a senior Psychology major at the University of Texas at Austin and an undergraduate research assistant on the Afterlives Project. He is interested in data analytics and information systems.

Rishi is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in Information Science from the School of Information. His interests lie in full stack development and data analytics. He is getting a double specialisation in Data Science and UX/UI, and plans to work in the IT industry.

Elena Gonzales Melinger
MSIS ‘22

Elena is a Master’s student at the iSchool at the University of Texas. She is passionate about data, instruction, and archives. She has previously worked as a research analyst at Rice University and as part of the Reference staff at Houston Public Library’s Central Library.

Bethany Radcliff
MSIS + MA English ‘21

Bethany Radcliff will graduate from the University of Texas with an M.S. in information studies and an M.A. in English in May 2021, and her interests focus broadly on digital humanities, metadata, memory, sound, and accessibility. She likes to think about the way ontologies and infrastructures shape information and identities. Bethany currently works at the Harry Ransom Center, and for the AudiAnnotate project.

Chloe Santiago
MSIS ’22

Chloe is pursuing an M.S. in Information Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her interests include critical pedagogy, accessibility, social infrastructure, intellectual freedom, and literacy. This year, she is co-facilitating the SCISCHOOL thought club.

Lucy Flamm
Independent Researcher

Lucy received her MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, she has worked to execute data-driven digital repository initiatives and archive historical materials for UT.

Anne C. Loos
MSIS ‘20

Anne received her MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin. Her interests include metadata, pop culture, and media preservation. For her Capstone, she developed a digitization priority plan for audiovisual materials in the Abbie Hoffman Papers at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. She is an audiovisual archivist in North Dakota.

Julia Sufrin
MSIS ‘20

Julia Sufrin is a writer and independent researcher who received her MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin. She has written about artificial intelligence, mental health, and the sociocultural impact of emerging technologies.

Hanlin Li @ Northwestern University

Hanlin Li is an incoming assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in the School of Information. She researches the social and economic impact of user-generated data such as ratings and social media comments. 

Daniel Carter @ Texas State

Daniel Carter is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University. He studies data and infrastructures, especially as these relate to questions of knowledge production, information provision and agency.

Megan Finn @ UW

Megan Finn is a researcher who looks at histories of information and disasters and teaches about information policy and ethics at University of Washington’s Information School. She is the author of Documenting Aftermath: Information Infrastructures in the Wake of Disasters.

Elliott Hauser @ UT

Elliott Hauser studies how information systems make things so in the world and what we do after we are certain. His work incorporates philosophy, information ethics, infrastructure studies, and algorithm studies.

Adam Kriesberg @ Simmons

Adam Kriesberg is an Assistant Professor at the Simmons University School of Library and Information Science. His research investigates preservation and curation of emergent forms of digital information such as social media records, as well as the role of the public sector in data management. His work has appeared in publications including Archival Science, the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), American Archivist, Data Science Journal, and the International Journal of Digital Curation