Benedict Salazar Olgado, PhD

Bono [bō-nō] is an assistant professor of archives and records management at the University of the Philippines School of Library and Information Studies. He is also a senior documentalist at HURIDOCS, where he supports human rights organizations worldwide with their documentation, information, and technological needs. His research is broadly situated at the intersections of memory, technology, and document(ation) studies in relation to human rights. Bono is particularly interested in the datafication of transitional justice, exploring how databases as infrastructures of memory shape the politics and practices of contending with violent pasts.

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Bono earned his PhD in Informatics with a Graduate Emphasis in Global Studies from the University of California, Irvine. Co-advised by Dr. Geoffrey C. Bowker and Dr. Roderic Crooks, his dissertation, Datafied Mnemopolitics: Databases, Expertise, and Transitional Justice, interrogates the entanglements of data, expertise, and memory work in post-conflict settings. At UCI, he was affiliated with the Steckler Center for Responsible, Ethical, and Accessible Technology (CREATE), the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction (LUCI), and the Evoke Lab and Studio. He was a co-founder and organizer of the Datafication and Community Activism initiative.

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An interdisciplinary scholar, Bono’s work spans LIS, STS, HCI, film and media studies, and global studies and has published in leading venues in these fields. He writes about transnational geopolitics of technology, political economy of social media, archives & cinema, and video games in the Global South among others. He is an active thought leader in the human rights documentation space.  

Bono received his  M.A. in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a B.A. in Social Sciences and Communication from the Ateneo de Manila University. As a scholar, he subscribes to while critically explores notions of academic generosity and academic insurgency. 

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His work has been recognized with numerous fellowships and awards, including the Noyce Fellowship in AI, Law, and Society (2021), the Rob Kling Endowed Memorial Fellowship in Social Informatics (2021), and the Public Impact Distinguished Fellowship (2023). He was also awarded the University of California President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship (2024).

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Bono has worked extensively in the field of audiovisual archiving, serving as the founding director of the National Film Archives of the Philippines. He was an executive councilor of the Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association (2014–2020) and co-chaired the International Outreach Committee of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (2012–2015). In 2014, he received the FOCAL Award for Best Archive Restoration/Preservation for his work on Manila in the Claws of Light (Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag, 1975/2013).

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Passionate about teaching and mentorship, Bono has advanced pedagogical training and certifications in evidence-based learning and inclusive education. At UCI, he was an Inclusive Excellence awardee in 2020, 2021, and 2022 for his contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. As an educator, he is committed to fostering critical engagement with archival practices, information ethics, and digital preservation.

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Bono’s scholarship is deeply informed by his work as a community organizer and human rights advocate. He follows in the footsteps of his parents, who were farmers and church leaders during the Marcos regime. Bono works with filmmakers, activists, and archivists in preserving the works of independent media collectives during Martial Law in the Philippines. Since 2016, he has served as database architect and archivist on numerous initiatives documenting the ongoing violent War on Drugs waged by the authoritarian regime of Rodrigo Duterte.

In 2021, Bono joined HURIDOCS initially as its Programme Manager for Asia Pacific before becoming its Senior Documentalist. At HURIDOCS, he provides supports for human rights groups across the globe with their documentation needs, while also leading research on the future of human rights documentation. 

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Bono loves panda bears.