Contact
arayburn@umich.edu
Hello!
I'm a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan School of Information. I conduct qualitative research on topics related to computing in museums and knowledge infrastructures. Specifically, I study the data practices and associated maintenance of these digital systems.
I received my Masters of Science and Information from the University of Michigan in 2020, along with a graduate certificate in Museum Studies. My Bachelor degree is from Michigan State University in Arts and Humanities. Prior to grad school I worked in cultural heritage museum collections, including the Michigan State University Museum assisting with their Quilt Index Project.
My interests include gardening, spending time outside with my dog, and crafting textiles.
Here is my CV (last updated October 2024).
News
February 2024: New paper in Archival Science with Andrea Thomer and Ricky Punzalan. In this text we examine the socio-technical frictions that showed up for the Great Lakes Research Alliance (GRASAC) during their recent data migration. We unpack the notion of systemic friction, or the continual challenges of pushing back against colonial legacies in museum collections.
November 2023: I presented at Museum Computer Network in Philadelphia.
May 2023: New paper in Science, Technology & Human Values journal: “A Patchwork of Data Systems”: Quilting as an Analytic Lens and Stabilizing Practice for Knowledge Infrastructures. With Andrea Thomer, we explore how practitioners in museums and archive collections are maintaining their digital systems, highlighting database work as a craft.
April 2023: I participated in the AI & Archives Symposium hosted by the Sussex Humanities Lab. My talk, titled, Innovative tech and invisible labor: lessons from early museum computing, discussed the gendered histories of museum computing work.
February 2022: My poster with Andrea Thomer, "The craft of database curation: Taking cues from quiltmaking," won the best poster award at iConference!