Biography

Dr. Melissa Villa-Nicholas is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Her work focuses on the information and technology histories and practices of Latinxs, immigrant information rights, and critical approaches to information science. Her first book, Latinas on the Line: Invisible Information Workers in Telecommunications (Rutgers Press), received an honorable mention from the Labor Tech Network book award for 2022. Her second book, Data Borders: How Silicon Valley is Building an Industry Around Immigrants, was released in July 2023 with UC Press. Dr. Villa Nicholas has received numerous awards, including Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Awards at the University of Rhode Island in 2021, the Library Juice Press Paper Contest in 2020 for her co-authored article with Dr. Jeanie Austin, and the Gender and Women’s Studies Smalley Fellowship for the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2015. Dr. Villa Nicholas founded the Information Equity, Diversity Communities, and Critical Librarianship track for the Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Melissa received her BA in Literature and Global Studies at Azusa Pacific University, her MA in Cultural Studies and Claremont Graduate School, her MLS in Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM), and her Ph.D. in Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).