Melissa Villa Nicholas, PhD
Melissa Villa Nicholas, PhD
SCHOLAR IN CRITICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE

VillaNicholas image.jpeg

I am a scholar specializing in Latine information and technology histories and practices in the U.S., critical information science, and the social construction of technologies. I am an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island. 

📞 đŸ–„ïž I'm currently working on research for my next project, Socio-Techno Narratives of Latina Immigrant Communities đŸ“±

My book Data Borders: How Silicon Valley is Building an Industry around Immigrant Data (University of California Press) is out now! Listen to the Big Data and Society interview about the book to learn more.

Latinas on the Line (Rutgers Press, 2022) received honorable mention from the Labor Tech Research Network's Inaugural book award for 2022.

Where to next?

Select Publications

Sweeney, M. and Villa-Nicholas, M. Digitizing the ‘Ideal’ Latina Information Worker. (2022). American Quarterly.

Villa-Nicholas, M. and Sweeney, M. (March 2020) "Designing the ‘good citizen’ through Latina identity in USCIS’s virtual assistant ‘Emma.’" Feminist Media Studies.

Data Body Milieu: The Latinx Immigrant at the Center of Technological Design. (2019). Feminist Media Studies.

Austin, J. and Villa-Nicholas, M. (August 2019) “Information Provision and the Carceral State: Race and Reference Beyond the Idea of the ‘Underserved.’” The Reference Librarian. 60.4


Education

PhD Information Science
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2016

MA Library and Information Studies

University of Wisconsin-Madison

2012

MA Cultural Studies

Claremont Graduate University

2010

 
 
 
 
color-3.png