Dana Reijerkerk

Dana Reijerkerk is a data analyst, data scientist, digital asset manager, taxonomist, video game designer, and writer. Her data work and research in the cultural heritage and nonprofit sectors explores sociotechnical issues in data with emphasis on the intersections and borders between technology and social power structures. She has published on the absence and omissions of Library of Congress Subject Headings for Indigenous Long Island, Trusted Digital Repositories, Indigenous federal recognition, and decolonization through user experience/user interface design. Her most recent interactive design is All Are Welcome (2023), an immersive psychological horror story and video game that explores the terror of Black and Indigenous experiences through public art and artificial intelligence. 

As a decolonial scholar and social justice activist, Dana’s worked with and in Indigenous communities on the east coast of the U.S. (Seneca, Lumbee, Anishinaabe, Shinnecock), Madagascar (Vezo), Costa Rica (Maleku), and diaspora enclaves in the U.S., South America, and Japan (Okinawan, Ainu). Her avant-garde and innovative work in digital archives, decolonization, and digital storytelling has earned her recognition as a 2023-2024 LEADING Fellow at Drexel University and a 2020 Museum Computer Network Fellow. She holds a Masters of Information (University of Michigan) and a degree in American Indian Studies (University of North Carolina at Pembroke).