The University of California Press has been absolutely wonderful to work with in designing the cover for my new book, titled Digital Equity Ecosystems: How Community Coalitions Reduce Inequality and Strengthen Democracy. Many thanks to Vanessa Rhinesmith for helping to inform the design, which is represented in this final version below! The image in the…
Book Approved for Publication!
I’m super excited to announce that my book, Digital Equity Ecosystems: How Community Coalitions Reduce Inequality and Strengthen Democracy was officially approved for publication by the editorial committee of the University of California Press! Update (9/13/25): Here is the descriptive text for the book: Digital Equity Ecosystems introduces readers to the groundswell of community coalitions…
New Article in Journal of Information Policy
Thrilled to have another journal article published this year, titled “Beyond Access and Infrastructure: Evaluating the Impact of Local Contexts on Digital Equity Strategies Through the Lens of the Digital Opportunities Compass.” The article was co-authored with my wonderful colleagues Dr. Pierrette Renée Dagg, Dr. Megan Knittel, and Joon Oh revised from an earlier version…
“The Ability to Pay for Broadband” Now Open Access
I am thrilled to announce that our 2019 paper, titled “The Ability to Pay for Broadband” (Rhinesmith, Reisdorf, & Bishop) is now open open access in Communication Research and Practice. As I described in a previous post after the article was published, “In our recent paper, published in a special issue of Communications Research and…
New Article in Journal of Participatory Research Methods
I’m absolutely thrilled to share the news that Sangha Kang-Le and I have a new peer-reviewed article that’s just been published in the Journal of Participatory Research Methods. The article, titled “Understanding the Value of a Digital Equity Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration Using Participatory Action Research,” presents an in-depth analysis of the participatory approach we used to…
Embracing LIS Values in Digital Equity Initiatives
Hosted by the University of Washington Information School, the LIS Forward initiative funded by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) sought to respond to the following urgent question: As the field of library and information science (LIS) evolves “within the context of iSchools, how do we best position our…
CFP: Digital Divide to Digital Literacy, Equity and Inclusion
CALL FOR PAPERS: Digital Divide to Digital Literacy, Equity and Inclusion Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) January 6-9, 2026 Hyatt Regency Maui The ever-changing landscape of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their increasing importance in life are widely recognized as integral to academic, economic, and civic advancement in society. However, the digital divide…
Promotion to Associate Professor at UIUC
I’m absolutely thrilled and honored to share that I’ve been promoted to Associate Professor with indefinite tenure in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved my tenure yesterday during their March meeting. I am extremely grateful to my colleagues in the School of…
#SaveIMLS: How the IMLS Shaped My Career and Why We Must Save The Agency
On Friday night, the President released yet another Executive Order, titled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.” Section 1 of the order states that the following “elements” of our U.S. government are “unnecessary” and orders that the “head of each government entity” in the list below has 7 days to submit a report to…
Investing in the Human Infrastructure of Broadband
I’m excited to announce that our collaborative final report, co-authored with Dr. Revati Prasad (Benton Institute for Broadband & Society) along with significant contributions from Dr. Caroline Stratton (National Digital inclusion Alliance) and Larra Clark (American Library Association) on the Human Infrastructure of Broadband is out today! The report, titled “From the Ground Up: investing…