Our FOCAS Team consists of faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate assistants, and others playing significant leadership roles across our nine institutions. You will find titles such as Principal Investigators, Postdoctoral Scholars, Research Scientists, Research Assistants, Mapping Team Researchers, and more.
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Axelle Demus, Ph.D.
Axelle Demus, Ph.D., is a media historian, archival researcher, and educator. As the Community Archives and Accessibility Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University, Axelle is supporting the implementation of the McGill/FOCAS internship program and conducting interdisciplinary research focused on disability and accessibility across community archives in Canada and the U.S. Broadly speaking, Axelle’s research considers processes…
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Berlin Loa
Berlin Loa is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona College of Information Science. She also manages the Knowledge River Scholars Program, a cohort-based learning community which fosters work in information science from the perspectives of historically marginalized people to build skills in cultural literacy and awareness in information services to these communities. She…
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Farzaneh Talebhaghighi
Farzaneh Talebhaghighi (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the School of Information at the University of Arizona with a minor in Social Sciences, with a research focus at the intersection of archival studies, immersive technologies, and sociotechnical design. She holds an M.A. in Archival Studies and a B.A. in Library and Information Science from Al-Zahra…
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Gabby Shriner
Gabriella (Gabby) M. Shriner (she/they) is a PhD Candidate at the College of Information Science with a minor in Communication Studies at the University of Arizona. They hold an MLIS from Rutgers University (NJ), and have over five years of experience working in public libraries. Her research examines the many intersections between the hybrid nature…
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Gracen Brilmyer, Ph.D.
Gracen Brilmyer, PhD, (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 an Assistant…
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James Lowry, Ph.D.
James Lowry, PhD, is President and Director of the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, University of New York, and is the Ellen Libretto and Adam Conrad Information Studies Professor. He is founder and director of the Archive Technologies Lab (ATL) and honorary researcher at the Liverpool University Center for Archive Studies,…
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Jamie A. Lee, Ph.D.
Jamie A. Lee, PhD, is Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Associate Professor of digital culture, information and society in the College of Information Science at the University of Arizona, where they co-founded and direct co/lab: The Critical Archives & Curation Collaborative and the DS|OH: Digital Storytelling and Oral History Lab, which communicates multimodal productions…
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Jennifer Douglas, Ph.D.
Jennifer Douglas (she/her) is Associate Professor in the School of Information at the University of British Columbia, where she teaches courses on arrangement and description and personal and community archives in the Master of Archival Studies program. Her research has focused on theories and practices of archival representation, particularly in the context of non-organizational records;…
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María Torres, Ph.D.
María Torres, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the College of Information Science at the University of Arizona. Their dissertation and current book project offer an alternate history of forensics grounded in direct action, technological disobedience and contestational biology in the context of forced disappearance in Mexico. Their research is embedded in a commitment…
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Marika Cifor, Ph.D.
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,…
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Michelle Caswell, Ph.D.
Michelle Caswell, PhD, (she/her), is a Professor in the Department of Information Studies at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2008, together with Samip Mallick, Caswell co-founded the South Asian American Digital Archive, an online repository that documents and provides access to the stories of South Asian Americans. She is the author of…
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Nicole Hayes
Nicole Hayes (they/she) is an MLIS graduate student at the University of Arizona. Their area of study primarily concerns archives and public librarianship with an emphasis on disability, social justice, and critical archival practice. Their approach to preservation aims to decentralize dominant narratives and challenge linear notions of time rooted in western neoliberal ideals of…
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Paul Jason Perez, MS
Paul Jason Perez, MS, is a second year PhD Information Science PhD student. He brings extensive experience mentoring students and collaborating with information workers. Perez comes to the UW iSchool on study leave from his position as Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines School of Library and Information Studies. He also brings experience…
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Stacey Wedlake, MLIS, MPA
Stacey Wedlake, MLIS, MPA, is a Research Scientist with the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington Information School. Her research focuses on the role of intermediaries (public libraries, community organizations, and governments) in digital equity efforts. She has a particular interest in how these groups can best support individual and…
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Sumayya Ahmed, Ph.D.
Sumayya Ahmed, PhD, joined the Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) and the University of Chicago Library as Executive Director of the BMRC in January, 2024. Prior to joining the BMRC, Ahmed worked as an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University in Boston, where she taught in the Archives…
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Taylor Marie Doherty
Taylor Marie Doherty (they/she) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona with minors in Information Science and Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory. Taylor is a co-organizer of the Archival Activism, Memory, and the Body Workshop and the Social Reproduction Theory Collective. They earned a Graduate…
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Temi Odumosu, Ph.D.
Temi Odumosu, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. She is an art historian and curator with an interdisciplinary approach to visual culture, information technology, artistic practice, and living archives. Her work interrogates the visual politics and legacies of colonialism, activates collections as sites of memory and conscience, and…
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Thuy Vo Dang, Ph.D.
Thuy Vo Dang (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Information Studies at UCLA specializing in oral history, archival studies, and ethnic studies. She is coauthor of the books, A People’s Guide to Orange County (UC Press, 2022) and Vietnamese in Orange County (Arcadia Publishing, 2015) and serves on the board of directors for Arts Orange County…
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Tolu Balogun, Ph.D.
Tolu Balogun, PhD, has extensive experience in records and archives management, having previously worked with several international organizations including at the United Nations. Tolu holds doctoral and master’s degrees in records and archives management from the University of Zululand, South Africa and the University of Ghana. As BMRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Community Archives, Tolu supports…
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Tonia Sutherland, Ph.D.
Tonia Sutherland is Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA, Sutherland was an assistant professor in the Department of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and in…
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Vanessa Irvin, Ph.D.
Vanessa Irvin, PhD, Associate Professor with the Master of Library Science Program at East Carolina University (USA), has authored three books and over 60 peer-reviewed publications and presentations and has been an invited speaker to over 30 panels and events. DrV has led grant-funded research projects exploring how heritage-based knowledge systems impact information-seeking behaviors and literacy practices…
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Vanessa Reyes, Ph.D.
Vanessa Reyes, PhD, (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Library Science Program at East Carolina University. She has over 15 years of experience working across diverse cultural and information institutions. Dr. Reyes holds a Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College and an M.S. in Library and Information Studies from Florida State…