Allan Martell

Allan A. Martell is an assistant professor at the Department of Information and Library Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. In his work, Martell explores how societies negotiate social memories of violence, the role of information curation in shaping such memories, and frameworks to promote more critical, nuanced memories. His work has been published in the Archival Science, Archivaria, Memory Studies journals, and the edited volume: Memory and Sociocultural Transformation in El Salvador (ed. Carlos Lara, University of El Salvador 2023). Martell is currently studying the role of affect in memory activism.

Martell received his Ph.D. in Information from the School of Information at the University of Michigan, an M.S. in Digital Media from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a B.A. in Social Communications from the Central American University (El Salvador). Before joining the faculty at Indiana University, Martell was a postdoctoral researcher at Louisiana State University (2020-2022).

Websites

• ResearchGate:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Allan-Martell
• ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7768-7822

Publications

Martell, A. A., Oltmann, S., & Wagner, T. (2025). “It does take a toll on you”: The role of affect in shaping archivists’ encounters with records about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006251367440

Martell, A. A.,Wagner, T. L., & Oltmann, S. (2025). The affective dimension of archival work: understanding the thoughts and feelings of archivists who documented the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Information Research an International Electronic Journal, 30(iConf), 330–337. https://doi.org/10.47989/ir30iConf47341

Martell, A. A., & Benoit III, E. (2024). An opportunity to stay connected: documenting personal communication records of military personnel. Archival Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-024-09445-x

Martell, A., Goryl, S., & Sai, N. (2024, October). Social Media Memory of January 6: Content Analysis of Twitter One Year Later.87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.1024

Wagner, T. L., Martell, A. A., & Oltmann, S. M. (2024). It’s Not the Materials Themselves, It’s the Attitude of the Donors”: The Role of Community Accountability in the Sustainability of Queer Archives.Archivaria. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13995

Travis L. Wagner, Allan Martell, & Shannon M. Oltmann. (2024). “Life Is Too Short Not To Speak the Truth”: Framing Accountable Community Collaboration Within HIV/AIDS Archival Work. Proceedings of the ALISE Annual Conference. https://doi.org/10.21900/j.alise.2024.1743

Oltmann, S. M., Wagner, T., &Martell, A.(2024). The People behind the Research: How Three Researchers Utilized Their Diverse Positionality to Study LGBTQ Archives.Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology,61(1), 803–806. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.1106

Martell, A. A., & Espinoza Vasquez, F. K. (2023). Collaborative Interpreting Practice in Developing a Conceptual Boundary Object: The Case of Social Memory Infrastructures. In A. T. Chen, A. Chassanoff, R. Ma, I. Huvila, Z. Lischer-Katz, & M. Krtalić (Eds.), 86th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T 2023).https://zenodo.org/records/10027677

Martell, A. A. (2023). "Post-Memorial Exhibitions: An approximation to negotiate cultural trauma through museum exhibition design." In C. B. Lara Martínez (Ed.), Historical Memory and Sociocultural Transformation in El Salvador (pp. 113–161). Research Institute at the School of Science and Humanities, University of El Salvador . https://hdl.handle.net/2022/29391

Martell, A. A. (2023). The exodus memory community: Leveraging oral history records to understand collected memories of violence. Memory Studies, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980221150893

Martell, A. A., Benoit, E. I., & Bronwlee, G. (2023). The Genre of Love Me Binders: U.S. Military Veterans Documenting their Service. Archivaria, Spring. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13899

Martell, A. A., Benoit, E. I., & Bronwlee, G. (2023). The Genre of Love Me Binders: U.S. Military Veterans Documenting their Service. Archivaria, Spring. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7202/1104263ar

Simioni, S., Martell, A., McDonald, A., & Mhaidli, A. (2018). Designing Digital Literacy and Security Trainings for Latinx Immigrants in the United States. 3rd SOUPS Workshop on Inclusive Privacy and Security (WIPS).https://inclusiveprivacy.org/documents/wips2018-final5.pdf

• Doctor of Philosophy in Information at University of Michigan, 2020
• Master of Science in Digital Media at Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012
• Bachelor of Arts in Social Communications at Central American University, 2008

• Archives and Record Management
• Communities of Practice
• Data Curation and Digital Preservation
• Digital Heritage
• Information and Library Science
• Infrastructure Studies
• Media Studies
• Social Informatics
• Social Media

• Z503 - Representation and Organization
• Z622 - Resources and Services for People with Disabilities
• Z764 - Archival Appraisal