Greetings! I am an Assistant Professor at the School of Data and Information Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. I conduct research and teach on community-driven approaches to born-digital stewardship and cultural heritage. I use interdisciplinary approaches to study how different communities (humanities scholars, digital preservationists, K-12 educators, software curators) engage purposefully with digital primary sources. Through empirical research, I develop theoretical insights and practical strategies that support the enduring curation and preservation of the cultural record.
The Latest
- news
Fall 2026 // news
Dr. Elliott Kuecker and I have co-authored a new book, Teaching Future Archivists: Contemporary Archival Studies Curriculum
Pre-order: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/teaching-future-archivists-9798216195894Description: With ready-to-go lesson plans this book is for archival studies instructors, both new to creating curriculum and those looking to refresh their courses.
The contemporary memory worker — or those who work in archives and public history positions — must go to work aware of the ethical, political, and practical discussions that have been happening in the field for the last thirty years. They are also expected to know the foundational conversations that have allowed the field to flourish and grow. It is thus essential that the classrooms that prepare future archivists and adjacent professionals integrate not only foundational theory, but contemporary concepts, into their curriculum. With this need in mind, this book combines canonical and contemporary archival theory and debates with concise summaries of important readings and figures, flexible assignments, and hands-on in-class workshops across several foundational subject areas within archival studies. This book is a resource for new archival studies programs that need to create curriculum from the ground up, or for seasoned instructors who want to invigorate their lesson plans and provide hands-on activities to their students.Each chapter in the book focuses on specific archival functions such as acquisition, description, outreach and access, and preservation, among others) and outlines the use of different pedagogical techniques instructors can adopt in their classroom. The authors also share practical insights, strategies, and guidance based on experiences developing, adapting, and implementing curriculum for future archivists and records managers. This book provides an overview of historical and current debates in the field alongside essential components for educators working in contemporary archival studies.
In October 2026, I’ll be attending “Envisioning Critical Futures for Archives as Data” a symposium hosted at the University of Toronto exploring “how sociocultural data from historical records are collected, manipulated, stored, visualized, extracted, and interpreted, with a focus on the fair and ethical consideration of creators and people represented in these records.”
We will also be presenting Mapping the Future of Data Stewardship: A Framework for Research Data Management Core Competencies with Bradley Wade Bishop, Angela Murillo, and Ayoung Yoon at the Research Data Alliance 27th Plenary Meeting, London, UK, 6-8 October 2026.
In November 2026, I’ll be presenting two papers at ASIS&T on research projects in progress:
“Crossing Methodological Borders: Articulating a LIS Visual Information Research Agenda” with Zack Lischer-Katz and Rhiannon Bettivia“Data Curation Core Competencies: A Survey Validation of Data Professionals to Inform Education and Employment” with Bradley Wade Bishop, Angela Murillo, and Ayoung Yoon
I am also working on a special issue in an upcoming Library and Information Science Research focusing on Information-as-Potentiality with Zack Lischer-Katz, Rhiannon Bettivia, Isto Huvila, Annie Chen, and Travis Wagner
Recent Publications and Presentations
“Engaging Students with Digital Oral History Collections” with Camilla Crane, 2026 Society of American Archivists Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, July 30, 2026.
“Professionalization Pathways in North American Digital Curation: A Current Look at LIS Education, Training, and Professional Development” with Ashley Rockenbach, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science (in press).
“The Finding Aid in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” with Travis Wagner, Diana Marsh, and Yingying Han, Archival Education and Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, July 2026
“Assessing Born-Digital Stewardship in Practice: The DigiStew Research Project”, Archival Education and Research Institute, Vancouver, BC,July 2026
“Validating Research Data Management Core Competencies: A Survey of US Data Librarianship Current Practices to Inform the Curricula” with Bradley Wade Bishop, Angela Murillo, and Ayoung Yoon, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, May 3-8, 2026.
“It Definitely Got My Mind Whirling: Building Community Partnerships for Teaching with Primary Sources” with Elliott Kuecker, Lyric Grimes, Gabi Benedit, Archival Science https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-026-09547-8
- Three new publications, IMLS funding updates, and the Deborah Barreau Award for Teaching Excellence
- 🚨 NEW PUBLICATION ALERT Ways of Knowing: Historians and the Social Construction of Evidence in The Journal of Documentation
- The DigiStew research project has been officially restarted due to IMLS funding restoration. More news on the project coming soon!
- 🚨 NEW PUBLICATION ALERT The Stories We Can Tell: Using Digital Primary Sources in the Archival Studies Classroom with Drs. Eliscia Kinder and Elliott Kuecker in The American Archivist.
- I am honored to share that I have received the Deborah Barreau Award for Teaching Excellence.
- This past spring, the Diving into Archives! Project held our first K-12 Educator Workshop in collaboration with the North Carolina Collection at the Durham Public Library. Our project team will be presenting our work, “Engaging Grades 9-12 Teachers in Place-Based Archival Instruction” on May 21st at the 41st Society of North Carolina Archivists (SNCA) Conference.
- 🚨 NEW PUBLICATION ALERT “Conceptual Approaches to Information-as-Potentiality” with Annie Chen in Information Research. Presented in March at iConference 2025. Nominee for Best Long Paper!
- The DigiStew research project has been officially paused due to IMLS funding termination. However, the advisory board and the research team continues to meet and work on CoP milestones.
- IMLS Early Career Award, Research Data Management Education Summit, Digital Presservation MIT Press Book, and more
- I am the proud recipient of an IMLS Early Career Award for a three-year research project to investigate how born-digital stewards describe their current needs and challenges; what professionalization pathways exist; and what role, impact, and value communities of practice have in born-digital stewardship.
- I am working with a group of iSchool educators on the NSF-funded Research Data Management Education Summit (RDMES) to take place at the ASIS&T Annual Conference in 2025.
- In the September/October issue of Archival Outlook, I discuss the Hacking into History project and our work on using public records to raise awareness and empower community members.
- I received a SILS Faculty Kilgour Research Award, to study how archival outreach and instruction efforts can engage K-12 educators. Currently, I am conducting a research study of North Carolina history and English teachers working throughout the state to understand how they use primary sources and archives in their classrooms. In Spring 2025, I will be working with SILS Professor Elliott Kuecker and doctoral student Lyric Grimes to hold a workshop for K-12 educators at the Durham Public Library.
- Dr. Rhiannon Bettivia and I have published a draft of Provenance, a chapter for the upcoming MIT Press book Digital Preservation: A Critical Vocabulary. Feedback is welcomed and will be accepted until December 2024.
- In November 2024, I will be presenting at the Association for Computers in the Humanities Annual Conference on community-driven approaches to historic data.
- Civic Data Literacy, iPRES2023, and Hacking into History
- I will be working with the Civic Switchboard Project on Civic Data Literacy for Libraries, a newly awarded IMLS grant to host regional institutes for library workers interested in serving as intermediaries between community members and civic data.
- In September, I’ll be moderating a panel at iPRES 2023 called “Community is We: Modeling Collective Action as a Framework for Digital Preservation.” The focus of our discussion is how can collective action build global capacity for digital stewardship?
- The Hacking into History Project is pleased to be joining a roundtable discussion with covenant projects from across the US at the 10th Biennial Conference of the Urban History Association: Reparations and the Right to the City.