Alia Hijaab is an artist, researcher, and graduate student pursuing her dual MAS/MLIS. She has roots in Syria, Qatar, the Southern United States, and now Vancouver, BC. She is the co-president of El Yasmin Library, a student-run community library offering Arabic-language and Middle East & North Africa (MENA) books and media. Her work is focused on building information ecosystems that are not only accessible, but emotionally and culturally legible to Arab diasporic communities. She is currently researching land-based archival practices in the Arab diaspora and is synthesizing ethnobotany, middle-east and north african studies, and decolonial practices into her archival work. With an undergraduate degree in animation from Emily Carr University and a background in nonprofit cultural work, Alia oscillates between an interdisciplinary storytelling practice and her deep interest and research in archives and libraries. With her new role at SACDA she aims to gain further experience in archival description and post-custodial archiving with a focus on the people at the centre of these collections.
