At the time of this interview, Michelle Garcia, a doctoral student at the University of Iowa, is watching the snow settle outside—a stark contrast to her hometown of Houston, TX. Just a year earlier, in 2023–2024, she worked as a Digital Research Specialist with the Digital Humanities Core Facility (DHCF) at the University of Houston.
Michelle’s academic path wasn’t always clear. As an undergraduate English major with a minor in Mexican-American Studies, she explored creative spaces like Glass Mountain Magazine and Coog Radio but realized creative writing wasn’t for her. Instead, she gravitated toward literary studies, which led her to archival work and digital humanities.
In 2023, she became an Archival Writing Intern for Arte Público Press’ US Latino Digital Humanities (USLDH) Center, organizing metadata and media from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Archives. One striking discovery was footage of President John F. Kennedy speaking at a LULAC event in Houston, the last stop before his trip to Dallas. She also worked with the archive’s vinyl collection, reflecting on the themes of love and community in Latino music.
That year, Michelle joined UH’s Mellon Scholars program. Through this program she met Linda Garcia Merchant, director of the DHC, who later encouraged Michelle to apply for the Digital Research Specialist position—a role she hadn’t previously considered.
“She knew the kind of work I was doing and thought I could benefit from it,” Michelle said. “She was right. I already knew I wanted to go to grad school, so I saw it as an opportunity to develop project management skills and learn new software.”
At the DHC, Michelle focused on digital publishing, collaborating with Taylor Davis-Van Atta (Head of Research Services, UH Libraries) and Woods Nash (Fertitta Family College of Medicine) on a digital monograph for UH’s Innovations in Art and Health project.
“I think it’s my first credit outside of my thesis as a production assistant,” she said. “Seeing the final product was really rewarding.”
Now at Iowa, Michelle has been awarded the Lulu Merrell Fellowship, allowing her to focus on research before beginning to teach in August. She is expanding on her undergraduate honors thesis and applying for a dual master’s in Library and Information Science.
“It can feel isolating compared to Texas, but I like the idea of bringing people out of the woodwork—we are here,” she said.
Looking ahead, Michelle remains committed to bridging academic research with community engagement.
“Helping people preserve their histories is more valuable than we give credit for,” she said. “Archives help us recover and understand ourselves in ways that matter.”