Students 2024–2025
Priscilla P. Avitia (she/her) is a second-year MLIS student specializing in Archives Studies. She has a BA in History from California State University, Dominguez Hills, where she focused on Mexican-American and BIPOC women and how they are (mis)represented in Western scholarly work. She is interested in continuing this research during her time at UCLA and how it can be incorporated into her work as an archivist. She is currently interning at La Historia Historical Society in El Monte.
Blair Black is an MLIS student at UCLA and a native Angeleno with a passion for preserving underrepresented stories. With a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, Blair brings an ear for cultural soundscapes and an eye for detail, whether it’s curating audiovisual materials or decoding metadata (a skill she swears is more thrilling than it sounds). By day, Blair works on digitizing materials at UCLA’s music library; by night, she dives into DJ sets that bring queer underground music scenes of color to life. She is thrilled to join the team at Visual Communications, hoping to blend digital preservation with accessibility for all. When not nerding out over analogue mediums, you’ll find Blair on a hunt for specialty enamel pins that tell their own little stories.
Ana Elizabeth Lara (she/they) is a second-year unDACAmented MLIS student specializing in Informatics and Media Archival Studies. She is from Acajutla, El Salvador, but also calls South Central Los Angeles home. Ana is an organizer and finance chair of the Undocumented Student Network in California and co-chairs Improving Dreams, Equity, and Access (IDEAS) at UCLA. Her writing focuses on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), student movements, undocumented critical theory, and information ethics. She is currently interning at the Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) at the Skid Row Museum and Archive.
Riona Tsai (she/they) is a 2nd year MLIS student at UCLA specializing in archives. She has previously graduated with degrees in Media & Cultural Studies and History from UC Riverside, Her background and interests are in public history and community archives. Riona is an intern at the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, where she has interned at previously working on various research projects and virtual exhibitions.
Sam Stroud (she/they) is a second year MLIS student specializing in archival studies. They are interested in queer and trans community archives. Sam is currently an intern at the June L. Mazer Lesbian archives.
Students 2023–2024
MICHAELA TELFER (she/her) is a second year MLIS student specializing in special collections and archives and holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California. Her professional and research interests include the relationships between archives and state power and the role of affect in archival practices.
CANDY NAVARRETE is currently a second year MLIS student at UCLA, a Repatriation Coordinator at the Autry Museum of the American West, and an intern at the Skid Row History Museum & Archive. Specializing in archival studies, her interests are in archival repatriation, Indigenous archival studies and cultural preservation. Her role as Exhibit Design Assistant on Brave Hearts: A Visual History of Sherman Indian Boarding School and volunteer Creative Writing Teaching Assistant for the Prison Education Project solidified her desire to continue uplifting communities through memory work. Ultimately, as a Mexican American and enrolled member of the Te-Moak Western Shoshone, she looks forward to improving the ways in which both of her communities are represented in museums, libraries, and archives.
JAMES EPPS (they/he) is a doctoral student in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA with a focus on shaping the future of archives through Black women’s and gender expansive evidence and record keeping. They hold a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from St John’s University and two Masters of Arts in Social Ethics and Womanist Theology from Union Theological Seminary and Claremont School of Theology. During which, James has taught writing courses, digital theology seminars, and led digital communication workshops. In 2022, he joined Writing Programs at UCLA, where they currently serve as TA Coordinator for English Composition in addition to supporting courses in Information Studies.
ESPERANZA BEY (she/her) is a second-year MLIS student. Her formal background is in Art History and recently served as a resident Community Archivist for EastSide Art Alliance’s Community Archival Resource Project (CARP). She is published in contemporary artist Sanford Biggers most recent exhibition catalog, Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch (2020). She is especially interested in Black Feminist theory, digital mapping and critical archival pedagogy that will inform liberatory world-making. She is currently interning at Visual Communications.
KRYSTAL MENDEZ Krystal Mendez is a second year MLIS student specializing in archives and special collections. She is interested in seeing how conservation and preservation efforts can be brought forth in community archives in a way that is sustainable and economical, while recognizing that those practices should not just come from a Western lens.
SENNA HANNER-ZHANG (she/her) is a second-year Master’s of Library and Information Science student at UCLA primarily interested in community-based archives and the placemaking potential of archives and records. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Senna is interested in the intersections of urbanism, art, and archives. She holds a BA in Architectural Studies from UCLA and has previously studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). She is currently interning at the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC).
Azad Namazie (they/them) is a second-year MLIS student specializing in Informatics and Media Archival Studies. They are a cultural worker focused on oral history stewardship and community informatics strategies in resistance to surveillance capitalism. Azad works at the UCLA Center for Oral History Research, where they manage and preserve two oral history collections of solidarity movement organizers and music artists, and currently interns at the Skid Row History Museum & Archive.
Students 2022–2023
EMILY BENOFF is a second year MLIS student, with a specialization in archival studies. Prior to attending UCLA, she pursued archival work in various art museums and historical societies throughout the Baltimore, MD/Washington, D.C. region. She is especially interested in exploring the intersection between place- and community-based archival work and critical archival studies. She is currently interning at the Skid Row History Museum and Archive (SRHMA), where she has been volunteering since moving to Los Angeles in 2021.
LAURA DINTZIS (she/her) is a second year MLIS student specializing in archives and special collections. She has an interest in issues of access, privacy, and affect, and how digital infrastructure influences efforts to preserve and collect ways of knowing. She is currently an intern at the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives.
ANDREA DOMÍNGUEZ is a second year MLIS student with a special interest in community-based archives and teaching. In her archival work, she hopes to make way for joyful, celebratory memory-making practices that are grounded in love, kinship, care, and radical imagination. She is an intern at S.P.A.R.C (Social & Public Art Resource Center).
CHLOE REYES is a second year MLIS student specializing in media archival preservation. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she is interested in how audiovisual archives can be activated through community engagement and contemporary artistic practices. Chloe will be interning at Visual Communications.
DANIELA REYES is a second year MLIS student at UCLA specializing in media archival studies. She is interested in how marginalized people can preserve collective memory with non-traditional archival practices. Daniela is currently an intern at the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive in Chinatown.
BIANCA J. SOSA-PHAL is a second year MLIS student at UCLA focusing on community archives and public libraries. She is interested in the mechanisms involved in the organization and collection descriptions in community archives. She believes this knowledge is suitable for public libraries in the proper handling of collections dealing with marginalized communities. Bianca is currently interning at La Historia Historical Society Museum.
ELIANA URIZAR is a second year MLIS student specializing in archival studies at UCLA. She has a special interest in community-based archives and working to preserve the voices of the communities they are a part of. In her spare time, she enjoys reading about the history of Mexican and Central American cuisine and languages. Eliana is currently an intern for the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.
Students 2021–2022
SAMANTHA ABBOTT is a second year MLIS student specializing in archival studies. She has worked and volunteered at various museums throughout Los Angeles and is interested in working with cultural and arts collections. Samantha is currently an intern at La Historia Historical Society in El Monte, CA.
HALL FROST is a second year MLIS student with a specialization in archives. She is interested in bringing the stories of the oft unheard to the forefront, including people facing marginalization; unearthing stories that challenge mainstream historical thought; and embracing archival work as a means of resistance. She is currently an intern at the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives in West Hollywood, where her biggest challenge is not stopping to read or marvel every single piece of a collection she is processing.
ANNE OLIVARES (she/her) is a Southern California native, born and raised in the Inland Empire. Anne worked in the custom artwork framing field for over a decade before completing her BA in Art History at UCLA in 2020, and will complete her MLIS at UCLA in 2022 with an archives focus. Anne is an intern for the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California for the 2021–2022 school year, where she is gaining valuable experience working with a community-based archive. Anne aspires to be an archivist / memory worker in community-based and personal archives following graduation.
ERIN SCHNEIDER is a second year MLIS Student,
specializing in archives. She is interested in working with community-based archives and museums. She is currently interning at SPARC (Social & Public Art Resource Center).
SHAWNE WEST is a 2nd year MLIS student focusing on community archives and media archives. She is primarily interested in how archives can be used for capturing and sharing untold stories and how they can be utilized as liberatory tools for marginalized communities. She is currently an intern at the Skid Row History Museum and Archive.
H
ANNAH WHELAN is a second-year MLIS student at UCLA specializing in Archival Studies. She is interested in processes of collective remembering and forgetting and the use of underground archives to resist narratives generated by government-controlled record-keeping and surveillance methods. Hannah will be working with Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA).
ELIZABETH WOOD is a second year MLIS student at the University of California, Los Angeles, with a specialization in archives and media archives. She is interested in issues of cultural heritage preservation, repatriation, memory, and identity. She holds a Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Riverside, and has previously worked on projects for Smithsonian Folkways, Now Again Records, the Refugee Rights in Records Initiative, and Great Leap. She is currently an intern at Visual Communications.
Students 2020–2021
BRIAN BELAK is an audiovisual archivist and MLIS student at UCLA, where he focuses on the preservation of amateur and community media. Brian will be interning at the Skid Row History Museum & Archive.
JULIANA CLARK is a second year MLIS student at UCLA specializing in archival studies and media archival studies. She is particularly interested in preserving the experiences and stories of marginalized people, and is interested in the ways that communities form their own archives. She volunteers in the archives at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and is currently an intern at La Historia Historical Society in El Monte, CA.
ALISHA CUNZIO is a second year student in the Master’s of Library and Information Science program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her current research interests include the accessibility and preservation of cultural materials, and how copyright and intellectual property laws affect these efforts.
CORYN HARDISON is a second year MLIS student with a specialization in archival studies. She has previously worked at UCI Special Collections & Archives, and the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C. She is currently interning at the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (CHSSC).
LISA KAHN is a second year MLIS student at UCLA with a special interest in archival science, especially online community-based archives and archiving student activism and labor. She has interned previously at Fox Studios, Center for the Study of Political Graphics, the Jewish Women’s Archive. Kahn will be now interning at the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives.
HANNAH LIEN is a second year MLIS student at UCLA specializing in archival studies. She is currently working with the Social and Public Art Resource Center. Previously, she has worked with the Museum of Ventura County and the Antelope Valley Indian Museum. She is interested in history, food justice, and the development of online archives.
GRACE MUÑOZ is a second year MLIS student at UCLA specializing in Media Archival Studies. She is currently the Archival Description Audit Scholar at the Center for Primary Research and Training, a program within UCLA Library Special Collections. She has previously worked at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Grace will be interning at Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective.
SERENA RODHOLM is a second-year graduate student in UCLA’s Department of Information Studies pursuing her MLIS degree in archival studies. After graduation she hopes to work in an archive or library where she can make a difference by bringing greater representation in these spaces by working directly with various community members to meet their needs. Serena will be an intern at Visual Communications.
JULIA TANENBAUM is a second year MLIS student working at the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives. She is passionate about digital archives, queer and feminist theory and history, and engaging with social movements in the present while also preserving their stories.
Students 2019–2020
CHANTEL DIAZ is a second-year MLIS student at UCLA on the media archival studies track. She will be interning at UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Library (CSRC) where she will be assisting with projects for the 50th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium in 2020.
DYLAN KARLSSON is an MLIS candidate at UCLA with special interest in archival memory and digital humanities. He has worked as a processing scholar at UCLA’s University Archives and contributed to projects at Beyond Baroque and the UCLA Herbarium. He is interning with Visual Communications, working with the Asian Pacific American Photographic Archives.
SAVANNAH LAKE is a second-year MLIS student at UCLA with an interest in community archives, digital collections, and the ethics of description. Savannah will be an intern at the Go For Broke National Education Center.
ROSEMARY MEDINA is a second year grad student with a focus on library and archival studies. She will be interning with the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. Previous archival experience has been at UCLA Library Special Collections, Otis College of Art & Design and the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
ZACH RUTLAND is a second year MLI
S Student focused on media preservation. He is interning at the Skid Row History Museum and Archive for the 2019/20 academic year in downtown Los Angeles.
CASEY WINKLEMAN is a ’20 UCLA MLIS candidate specializing in Media Archival Studies. She is currently an AV Preservation Assistant with the UCLA Library’s Preservation Studio and an organizer of Artifacts, a group for UCLA Information Students interested in arts librarianship, visual resources, and museum informatics. In Summer 2019, she was an archives intern at the Sequoia Kings Canyon National Parks Museum and Archive. Casey will be interning at the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives.
Students 2018–2019
HENRY MICHAEL APODACA is a complex Adaptive System with lateral-connectivity, and multiple ports of knowledge/power entry. Interests include Community Archives Impact Assessment, Groove media digitization and Ontological-design.
JULIE BOTNICK is a second year MLIS student at UCLA, interested particularly in issues of consent-based archival appraisal and access policies. She has previously worked in archives from 20th Century Fox to Zion National Park to Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Julie will be an intern at the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives.
ADAM FOSTER is a UCLA MLIS Media Archives Studies ’19 candidate whose studies and research focus on the conservation and preservation challenges of community archives. He currently works as an archivist at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater building a preservation plan in support of their library space and collections as the theater transitions to a new physical location.
ARIEL HAHN is an MLIS student in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA and organizer for README, a student group that advocates for digital rights within libraries, archives, and information work. She is interested in questions of time, history, power, technology, and the natural world.
KRYSTELL JIMENEZ received her B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley and is currently a master’s student in the Library and Information Studies program at UCLA. She is interning at CHIRLA and is interested in immigration and refugee-related documentation issues.
LAUREN MOLINA is an MLIS candidate at UCLA, DAMS assistant at the Hammer Museum, with a BFA in drawing & painting. Her tendencies to collect, arrange, and display have been translated into a professional practice. Lauren will be an intern at La Historia Society Museum.
RAISHA PACELLA is a second year student in the Master of Library and Information Science(MLIS) program. She is working with the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), processing digitized archival materials and planning a SAADA symposium to take place in February 2019.
ALEXIS RECTO is a second-year MLIS student at UCLA with a focus on Archival Studies. She is interning at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center where she is processing their Yuri Kochiyama collection.
YURI SHIMODA is a second-year student on the media archival studies track, with a focus in audio archiving at UCLA. She is the founder of the first student chapter of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), a recipient of an American Library Association 2018-2019 Spectrum Scholarship, and spent last summer at the Packard Campus of Audio-Visual Conservation as a Library of Congress Junior Fellow. Yuri will be an intern at the Visual Communications.
BRIANNA TOTH is a UCLA MLIS Media Archive Studies ’19 candidate studying the restoration and stewardship of moving image artist collections. She currently works as an archivist at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater building workflows to identify and digitally preserve their special collections so these materials can be accessible in the theater’s new location.
LAUREN TRUJILLO is a second-year student in UCLA’s MLIS program specializing in media archival studies. She is interning with the Isla Vista Memorial Project at UCSB and assisting with a project for the 5-year remembrance.