About us

David Ribes (he/him) is associate professor in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) and director of the Data Ecologies Lab (deLAB) at the University of Washington. He is a sociologist of science and technology who focuses on the development and sustainability of research infrastructures (i.e., networked information technologies for the support of interdisciplinary science); their relation to long-term changes in the conduct of science; and, transformations in objects of research. David is a regular contributor to the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Information Studies. His forthcoming book, ‘Machineries of Similarity and Difference: AIDS From Its Research Infrastructures’ is a sociotechnical inspection of the concept of interoperability, tracking the trajectory of three HIV/AIDS cohort studies as they combined over three decades. See dataecologi.es for more.

Marika Cifor (she/her) is Assistant Professor in the Information School and adjunct faculty in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She is a feminist scholar of archival studies and digital studies. Her research investigates how people marginalized by gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, and HIV-status are represented and how they document and represent themselves uncovering how archives and digital technologies and cultures are shaping identities, experiences, and social movements. Cifor is the author of Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), co-editor of a 2020 First Monday special issue on ‘HIV/AIDS and Digital Media,' and has published widely on HIV and AIDS documentation, memory, and cultures.

Stephen Molldrem (he/him) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in the Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities. He is a qualitative social researcher, health policy analyst, and ethnographer situated in Science and Technology Studies (STS), public health ethics, sexuality studies, and critical data studies. His scholarship on HIV/AIDS has included ethnographic research and other qualitative studies about transformations in the US federal policy paradigms that govern the management of HIV in the era of treatment-as-prevention. This work includes ongoing projects about the integration of US HIV public health data infrastructures as part of the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy as well as analyses of social movement dynamics and ethical issues stemming from new approaches to HIV surveillance. Learn more on his website and find his CV here.

Andrew Spieldenner (he/him) (Ph.D., Howard University) is Executive Director of MPact Global Action and Associate Professor of Health Communication at California State University-San Marcos. Dr. Spieldenner is a community-engaged researcher and advocate with 30 years of experience in HIV. Openly living with HIV, Dr. Spieldenner is currently on the Developed Countries Delegation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He is the author of multiple articles and co-editor of the books Intercultural Health Communication (Peter Lang, 2020), Post-AIDS Discourse in Health Communication (Routledge, 2022) and A Pill for Promiscuity (Rutgers, 2023).