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Ricky Punzalan, PhD in Information, is a faculty member in University of Maryland's iSchool. With a focus on digital information and archives, his research explores the impacts of digitization and online technology for institutions and the users they serve.In studying the relationship of archives and memory, he examines how archival records and archival repositories contribute to the creation and preservation of collective memory and also how they may achieve social justice. He has particular interest in the digitization of photographs, and also in colonial archives as they are re-interpreted in postcolonial communities. In addition to his scholarly contributions, he focuses on archival training, issues of practice, as well as institutional or infrastructure-related barriers to productive archival work.
His article “Fields of Vision,” which he coauthored with Prof. Paul Conway in 2011, received the 2012 Hugh A. Taylor Prize from the Association of Canadian Archivists. The prize is awarded annually to recognize the most significant article published in Archivaria, the premier Canadian archival journal. The award is given for presenting “new ideas or refreshing syntheses in the most imaginative way, especially by exploring the implications of concepts or trends from other disciplines for archival thinking and activity, and by extending the boundaries of archival theory in new directions.
Most recently, he received a Research in Early Career Development grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Studies (IMLS). The grant will support Punzalan’s work to develop assessment toolkits to evaluate the access and use of digitized ethnographic archives by Native American and other users.