Marika Cifor, PhD, is Associate Professor at the UW iSchool, where she is also adjunct faculty in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. An expert in archives and digital studies, she is the author of Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) and over 20 articles in archival studies, gender and sexuality studies, digital humanities, and critical information studies. She has been engaged with community archives as a researcher and practitioner for over fifteen years, including those focused on HIV/AIDS and on LGBTQIA+ communities as well as many others as an alum of the UCLA Community Archives Lab. At UW she teaches and mentors undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students in archival studies, science and technology studies, and critical information studies. Cifor is the recipient of an early career award from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and her research is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation. She is a leader in the LIS community, including serving on the editorial board on the Homosaurus and formerly on the Archival Education and Research Initiative (AERI) executive board. Cifor holds a PhD in Information Studies and graduate certificates in Gender Studies and the Digital Humanities from UCLA, an MS in Library and Information Science and MA in History from Simmons University, and a BA in History and Political, Legal, and Economic Analysis from Mills College.
