Marie Saldaña

Marie Saldaña is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Heritage Informatics at the University of Arizona's College of Information Science. She holds a PhD and M.Arch. from UCLA and a BA in Humanities from USC. Her research bridges architecture, history, and digital media, focusing on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and Tejano architectural heritage. Saldaña's work emphasizes multi-modal representations like 3D modeling, network graphs, and interactive media to reinterpret historical spaces and family networks. Her current book project, funded by a 2024 NEH Fellowship, explores Tejano families' entanglements with place in South Texas' Wild Horse Desert. She teaches courses on digital history, spatial modeling, and archival practices, prioritizing critical thinking and inclusive design.

Key achievements include a NEH Fellowship and presentations at venues like the Society of Architectural Historians. Her research interrogates how embodied practices and colonial land surveys shaped built environments, while her digital humanities projects visualize family networks across borders. Saldaña advocates for reimagining archives as experimental spaces where design and technology challenge historical narratives.