New Course: “Intersectionality, Technology and the Information Professions”

I am excited to announce that we are offering a new course, titled “Intersectionality, Technology and the Information Professions” (LIS 532P) at Simmons SLIS in spring 2020. The course, which I helped to develop with my colleague Danielle Pollock builds on Danielle’s work teaching “Race, Gender, and Information Technology” at the University of Tennessee and some of the perspectives I had incorporated in my Social Informatics course last year. We are also collaborating with our SLIS colleague Rebecca Davis to finalize the syllabus, course readings, and assignments for next semester.

Here’s the course description from our website:

“This course focuses on how race, gender, and other intersecting social identities, such as sexuality, social class, and ability, impact and are impacted by people’s interactions with information, technology, and the information professions. The contexts include culture, inclusion, and equity within: information professions; information technologies and services; classification and information organization; and information environments, including virtual environments. Students will gain a deeper understanding of critical perspectives on expressions of identity, disparate impact on use and users of technology, digital equity, and implications for professional practice.”

2019 Ernest A. Lynton Award Finalist

Campus CompactI am incredibly honored to share the news that I was selected as a finalist for this year’s Ernest A. Lynton Award for the Scholarship of Engagement for Early Career Faculty. Santamaría Graff, Assistant Professor of Urban Teacher Education at IUPUI was this year’s recipient, which was jointly awarded by Campus Compact and Brown University’s Swearer Center for Public Service.

Brown University

As the Swearer Center’s website explains,

“The Lynton Award emphasizes community-engaged scholarly work across faculty roles. The scholarship of engagement represents an integrated view of faculty roles in which teaching, research/creative activity and service overlap and are mutually reinforcing, is characterized by scholarly work tied to a faculty member’s academic expertise, is of benefit to the external community, is visible and shared with community stakeholders and reflects the mission of the institution.”

The press release also explained that “the recipients of the 2019 Lynton and Ehrlich Awards will be recognized at Campus Compact’s Compact20 national conference, which will be held in Seattle, WA from March 29 to April 1, 2020.”