Category Archives: Women’s Studies Librarianship

GSISC 2020 Technologies and Race, Gender, Sexuality, and the Body in Information Studies

This gathering seeks to create an inclusive space for difficult, fruitful conversations around technology, however defined, as it affects and is affected by race, gender, sexuality, and ability. We aim to foster conversations that consider “technology” as the expression of material cultures, labor, and embodiment; as well as sites of empowerment or oppression.

In libraries, and in the professional discourses of librarianship and information studies, we often talk about “technology” as a means to an end. Or, we speculate about technology as though it emanated from the horizon of a futurity that appears sometimes threatening, sometimes empowering, but always inevitable: e.g., artificial intelligence will “revolutionize” the ways we find and use information. Both kinds of discourse omit the ways technologies begin and end in the flesh — how technologies shape habits of body and mind, just as those habits influence the design and construction of technologies.

The planning committee for the 2020 Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium invites you to join continue these conversations July 24, 2020 in Washington, DC at George Washington University.

We invite proposals that address the problems, power, and potential of “technologies” in libraries and archives, past, present, and future, and seek a range of interpretations of the concept of technology.

Questions might include, but are not limited to:

  • How do search algorithms, metadata standards, and user interfaces challenge or reinforce white supremacy, heteronormative patriarchy, and ableism?
  • How do our catalogs, databases, finding aids, and collections disguise the traces of oppression, even while perpetuating the violence visited upon the oppressed?
  • How do we talk about the absence of voices (either in the historical record or from our present-day communities) that haunts the architecture and design of our systems?
  • How have technologies been used to selectively forget pasts to perpetuate certain futures? How are technologies used to unearth the forgotten?
  • How do we address the absent presence of laboring bodies behind our technologies, especially those bodies whose labor is devalued and poorly remunerated?
  • How do we begin to redress the inequities that library and information technologies perpetuate, where the default user is most often white and able-bodied, and whose architects, designers, and managers are most often white cis men?
  • What kinds of digital cultural memory and community-based projects are critical right now?

We invite submissions from individuals as well as pre-constituted panels. Submit your proposals here: http://bit.ly/GSISC2020

Deadline for submission: November 15, 2019
Notification by January 15, 2020
Registration opens February 1, 2020

Please direct any questions or concerns to GSISC2020@gmail.com

Organizing committee:
Jennifer Brown, Barnard College
Emily Drabinski, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Leah Richardson, The George Washington University
Hannah Scates Kettler, University of Iowa
Kristan Shawgo, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Dolsy Smith, The George Washington University
Tonia Sutherland, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Hannah Wang, Wisconsin Historical Society

Distance Education special issue: Distance Education Across Critical Theoretical Landscapes

The  purpose  of this  special  themed  issue  is  to provide  a  venue  for scholars, researchers, instructional  designers, and classroom  teachers  to engage  with critical  theories  and diversity in open, flexible  and technology-mediated distance  learning environments.  To provide  the  most opportunity for inclusion, we  invite  submissions  that  consider a  wide  variety of technologies, pedagogies,  modes  and settings  (e.g., K-12, higher education, and industry/corporate  settings). We encourage  submissions  that  represent  the  theoretical  landscape, and which demonstrate  the breadth and depth of theoretical  lenses  that  have  been historically underrepresented. This includes, but  is  not  limited to the  following:  critical  race  theory, critical  pedagogies, disability studies, feminisms, heutagogy, and LGBTQIA+ studies. Finally, we  invite  a  variety of research paradigms  as  well  as  theoretical  pieces, meta-analyses, and strategic  reviews  of the literature.
More information can be found here: https://t.co/ 5WZg7UpOUkqncapes

Feminist Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition

Society for Analytical Feminism

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Deadline: July 1, 2019

SAF Session at the Eastern Division APA 2020
Philadelphia, PA, Jan 8 – 11, 2019

The Society for Analytical Feminism invites submissions of abstracts of papers or proposals for a session at the 2020 Eastern Division APA meeting in Philadelphia, PA. The Society seeks abstracts of works that examine feminist issues by methods broadly construed as analytic, or that discuss the use of analytic philosophical methods as applied to feminist issues. Authors should submit abstracts for papers of a length appropriate to a 20-minute presentation time. (If you are proposing an author-meets-critics session, involving multiple people, we welcome that information but expect an abstract-length proposal indicating that the author has confirmed to you their intention to participate, as well as indication of the relevance of the book/author to a SAF session, such as the themes to be discussed.)

Please delete all self-identifying references from your abstract to ensure anonymity. Use the form posted here at: https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforms.gle%2FrQ5azk9o7v6JxcSDA&data=02%7C01%7Cdxf19%40psu.edu%7C319560d0628641934bdb08d6e4597653%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C1%7C636947470229660384&sdata=qPyAq6n47DtRdDAqTPfyrrDoaUaFNwIdZLCdXLQFXfo%3D&reserved=0.  Attach submissions as a Word or PDF attachment. Deadline for submissions: July 1, 2018. Graduate students or underfunded professionals whose papers are accepted will be eligible for the Society’s $350 Travel Stipend. Please indicate on submission form if you fall into one of these categories and wish to be considered for the stipend. Direct any questions to feminist.analytic@gmail.com.

The deadlines for submissions to the Central (in Chicago, February 26 – 29) and the Pacific (in San Francisco, April 8 – 12) follow quickly after these (July 15 and August 5 respectively).  Check out the SAF Website — https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fanalyticalfeminism%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cdxf19%40psu.edu%7C319560d0628641934bdb08d6e4597653%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C1%7C636947470229670376&sdata=ccc7CoZECUGf5%2BIxxdsqOFJENhUAgSAKMvab5eeaU50%3D&reserved=0 — to submit for the Central or the Pacific.

Tear Down the Walls

Digital Frontiers welcomes submissions for the 2019 conference, Tear Down The Walls, hosted by UT Austin in Austin, TX on September 26-28, 2019. The conference features Keynote Addresses from Dorothy Kim (Brandeis University) and Alex Gil (Columbia University).

Digital Frontiers is a conference and community that brings together the makers and users of digital resources for the humanities. Established in 2012 to respond to the need for an affordable, high-quality conference that addresses the emerging field of digital humanities from a variety of perspectives, Digital Frontiers is a truly interdisciplinary experience.

Digital Humanities scholars deal with numerous barriers and borders as they interrogate the world around them through a digital lens. We invite participants to think critically about the composition of these walls, of their implicit and explicit functions, and the colonial practices by which many were and are still being created. Some of these barriers are created by a community for self-preservation, while others are built to perpetuate structural inequalities and discriminatory practices. Not all walls are physical. As a community, Digital Frontiers has interrogated the frontier and the border in digital scholarship as scenes of both conflict and creativity. In 2019, we invite scholars, students, librarians, archivists, gallery and museum professionals, and community practitioners to interrogate these boundaries and amplify the weaknesses we can use to tear down those walls that serve only those gatekeepers in power. We also encourage reflection on the aftermath: how do we communicate, produce, and exchange knowledge when these walls no longer block the way.

We invite deeper considerations of dismantling barriers in digital scholarship broadly conceived, presented in any of the following formats, with proposals consisting of a 300-500 word abstract:

  • Preconstituted Panels Curate your own panel for a 60-minute session.
  • Individual Scholarly Papers or Presentations Share your work in a 15-minute presentation. (Note: early stage research, project updates, and single-institution “case studies” should be submitted as Posters or an alternative format).
  • Posters Share your early stage research, project updates, manifestos, or single-institution “case studies” in a 36” h x 48” w academic poster.
  • Exhibitions, Installations, Performances, and Alternative Formats
    • Defined broadly to include: art installations, dance, video demonstrations, live game exhibitions, or other embodied and participatory forms of knowledge sharing.
    • Please include your technical, spatial, and time requirements in your proposal.

Proposals will be double reviewed in an open process that emphasizes conversation and community mentoring. All proposals will receive detailed feedback, with final decisions made by the Program Committee.

Key Dates & Deadlines

  • CFP Opens: January 15, 2019
  • CFP Deadline: April 14, 2019
  • Notifications: June 1, 2019

 

Contact conference@digitalfrontiers.org with inquiries.

Culturally Responsive Teaching in Libraries

Conference Announcement & Call for Proposals:

Culturally Responsive Teaching in Libraries

MILEX 2019 Spring Conference

Thursday, April 25, 2019, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Loyola Graduate Center, 8890 McGaw Rd, Columbia, MD

(Registration forthcoming)

The Maryland Information Literacy Exchange (MILEX) is a collaborative of Maryland academic librarians to promote information literacy in higher education.

Join us at this year’s MILEX Spring Conference featuring presentations on the role of libraries in culturally responsive teaching.  A keynote will be given by Ashleigh D. Coren, Special Collections Librarian for Teaching and Learning at University of Maryland Libraries, whose teaching focuses on diverse students and finding stories in the collection. Coren is co-developer of the LGBTQ Oral History Project at UMD, and was recognized as an Emerging Leader by ALA in 2018.

Registration fees (light breakfast and hot lunch included):

MILEX member                      $45

Non-member                           $75

Membership + Registration     $65

Student                                    $20

For more information, visit the MILEX website: www.milexmd.org.

Call for Proposals! (Due March 4th)

We’re looking for presentations that demonstrate how librarians are engaging in culturally responsive teaching. Submit proposals to the chair of the conference committee, Jordan Sly, at jsly@umd.edu by Monday, March 4, 2019.

Include the following in your proposal:

1.       In a paragraph or two, what your presentation will entail; a general outline is fine.

2.       Student learning outcomes (what will students learn/develop as a result of the activity)

3.       Optimal amount of time that should be allotted for your presentation

4.       Any resources you will need

5.       Short biographical statement

Registration will open on March 12 at the MILEX website:www.milexmd.org/events.html.

Register early, as space will be limited.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Jordan Sly with your questions and concerns: 301-405-9290.

Funds raised will be administered by the University System of Maryland Foundation, Inc. for the benefit of MILEX – Maryland Information Literacy Exchange.

Playing and Pedagogy: The Theory and Practice of Teaching with Video Games

Hello all,

I’m writing to announce a call for contributions for a special feature in Films for the Feminist Classroom.

Playing and Pedagogy: The Theory and Practice of Teaching with Video Games

Video games and films—both genres increasingly share tropes in their design, aesthetic, and reliance on narrative plots. Video games often use a short film to introduce players to the rules and characters, and action films can rely so much on computer generated imagery that it’s not clear where the computer ends and the “real world” begins. Moreover, films and video games at some times (re)produce status quo norms and hierarchies and at other times offer a path toward radical social justice. In this sense, both serve as forms of entertainment and instruction, pleasure and discomfort. And both can be useful for teaching skills, ideas, and content for educators in various settings.

Considering these similarities, Films for the Feminist Classroom (https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fffc.twu.edu%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cdxf19%40psu.edu%7Cc25907b16bef4499101708d687b5658e%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C0%7C636845610496606759&sdata=runjDjANceZsx4HP1F4%2BLaLWlopbYQp8OaGDFDbUyys%3D&reserved=0) is developing a special feature about intersections of gaming/film/video media and pedagogy for an upcoming issue. We are looking for contributions that explore gaming in relation to pedagogy and that in some way critically engage or address hierarchies of power and privilege. We also ask contributors to consider topics relevant to gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, socioeconomic class, religion, and other social, biological, and cultural influences.

We are interested in short essays (1500-2500 words), game reviews, and lesson plans that offer resources for educators who might consider using gaming in their teaching. Proposals are welcome from a range of theoretical and methodological frameworks, that span a range of fields and disciplines, and that explore various media forms, topics, and content. Educators at a variety of phases of their careers—graduate students to retired faculty—and at a variety of locations, including primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, and community centers, as well as from different countries, are encouraged to submit a proposal.

Proposals may address but are not limited to the following areas:
— crafting a syllabus and/or a unit within a syllabus about gaming
— incorporating game design in lesson plans
— gaming assignments and/or activities that educators could use
— how different educational settings affect the media and pedagogical strategies we use
— rethinking education material and approaches with gaming
— explicitly pedagogical games
— pairing film/video media and readings
— deconstructing and analyzing video games as a class activity
— the cultural dimensions of gaming
— gamergate threats and harassment and the effect on student’s perception of gaming communities
— gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, religion, etc. in relation to video games
— social justice in gaming narratives
— the rhetoric of video games
— experimental or avant garde video games
— pairing film/video media and readings
— how video games can reinforce and disrupt norms
— the relationship between gaming and other participatory and social media platforms

Proposals should be 150-200 words and cite the specific short media you will discuss in the essay. The deadline for submitting proposals is February 20, 2019. If accepted, completed contributions will be due April 15, 2019.

Please submit proposals and direct any questions to ffc@twu.edu or to Agatha Beins at abeins@twu.edu / 940-898-2117. More information about submitting proposals can be found here: https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fffc.twu.edu%2Fcall_4_proposals.html&data=02%7C01%7Cdxf19%40psu.edu%7Cc25907b16bef4499101708d687b5658e%7C7cf48d453ddb4389a9c1c115526eb52e%7C0%7C0%7C636845610496606759&sdata=ZVoFyFUcufriihsokghoYDfse01FmRHnZm5ni%2FlDr6o%3D&reserved=0.

Agatha Beins
Associate Professor
Department of Multicultural Women’s and Gender Studies
Texas Woman’s University
Editor, Films for the Feminist Classroom

Walls, Wells, or Welcomes: Libraries in the Lives of Immigrants, Old and New

The Library History Round Table (LHRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) seeks papers for its Research Forum at the 2019 ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., June 20-25, 2019. The theme of the Forum will be re-examining the relationship between libraries and immigrants/immigration, in any country, any region of the world.

One of the most divisive topics in our current society is immigration policy and the issues and concerns stretch backwards throughout library history as well. Libraries have been present in the lives of immigrants in the United States (and potentially other countries) as institutions that were unfamiliar or unwelcoming (walls), sources of wisdom (oftentimes through immigrant children), and/or a welcome to a new community. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Acculturation, libraries, and the American middle class;
  • The role of immigrant children in helping their parents become introduced to libraries and to reading;
  • Specialized services introduced and developed to support immigrants’ information needs;
  • Working with the “foreign population,” in urban or rural settings;
  • The development of classification systems that were affected by immigration;
  • Readers’ advisory services for immigrants;
  • Children’s and/or youth services and the “foreign born;”
  • Libraries and internment/detainment camps.

LHRT welcomes submissions from researchers of all backgrounds, including students, faculty, and practitioners. Proposals are due on February 15, 2019.  Each proposal must give the paper title, an abstract (up to 500 words), and the presenter’s one-page vita. Also, please indicate whether the research is in-progress or completed. The abstract should include a problem or thesis, as well as a statement of significance, objectives, methods/primary sources used for the research, and conclusions (or tentative conclusions for works in progress).

LHRT Research Committee will select up to three authors to present their completed work at the Forum. Completed papers are due May 15, 2019, and the Research Forum will likely occur on Sunday, June 23, 2019. All presenters will be notified of the submission outcome no later than May 31, 2019, and must register to attend the conference.

Questions and submissions should be directed to Dr. Cindy Welch at cwelch11@utk.edu.

Supporting Lifelong Learning: How Your Library Can Better Serve Adult Learners (LIRT Preconference)

At ALA Annual 2019 in Washington, D.C., the Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) will host a preconference exploring how libraries of all types can best serve adult learners. We are seeking volunteer panelists for this program. Three sessions will explore different aspects of libraries’ service to this community. If you are interested in presenting, please submit an abstract (of no more than 150 words) indicating in which session you would be interested in participating and explaining what you would plan to present. Please also include the name of the library location where you work. Please submit your abstract by January 25th, 2019 via email to the respective committee member indicated below.
Please note: if you’ve already received a confirmation email from the committee, there is no need to resubmit your abstract.
Session #1: Secret Lives of Online Learners. Panel of 2 librarians who support online/distance learners, as well as 2 actual adult learners enrolled in online courses. Please submit abstract to both Mark Robison and Bridget Farrell (mark.robison@nd.edu and Bridget.Farrell@du.edu).
Session #2: Designing Instruction That’s Right for Adults. Panel of 3 librarians and/or instructional designers who can speak to specific lesson plans and activities that they have used with adult learners. Will also include a workshop component, where participants can get feedback on real lesson plans or instruction ideas. Please submit abstract to both Ted Intarabumrung and Mandi Goodsett (tintarabumrung@rcc.mass.edu and a.goodsett@csuohio.edu).
Session #3: TREMENDOUS! 3 Big Ideas for Marketing Library Services to Adults. Panel of 3 librarians (outreach librarians; subject liaisons; etc.) who can talk about engaging adult patrons with successful programming or about marketing strategies. Please submit abstract to both Bridget Farrell and Mark Robison (Bridget.Farrell@du.edu and mark.robison@nd.edu).
Abstracts will be reviewed by the LIRT Adult Learners Committee.  Finalists will be notified by February 15th, 2019.
Further details about the preconference are provided below.
*****************
Supporting Lifelong Learning: How Your Library Can Better Serve Adult Learners (LIRT Preconference)
Fri, June 21, 2019 – 12:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Location: Walter E. Washington Convention Center
Libraries of all types are seeing increased usage from adult learners.  As these numbers continue to rise, cultivating effective information literacy practices in these learners is becoming increasingly critical.  In this preconference, you will learn how libraries can best support adult learners.
Over the course of this half-day workshop participants will learn:
Firsthand perspectives of adult learners in digital learning environments as well as strategies librarians can employ to develop these learners’ research skills
Methods for designing lesson plans and learning activities for adult learners
Tactics for engaging adult patrons through successful programming and marketing strategies.
This preconference will be of interest to librarians in both public and academic libraries as well as librarians working in any setting with adult learners. The preconference will include speakers from a variety of library settings, sharing their perspective on supporting adult learners. Refreshments will be provided.
This preconference is presented by the LIRT Adult Learners Committee.

EDUCATION, SOCIETY, & REFORM CONFERENCE

28-29 JUNE 2019, ANKARA

For more information go to: http://www.edusref.org/

Education, Society & Reform Research (EDUSREF-2019) is an International Conference that aims to bridge the knowledge gap, promote social research esteem, and produce democratic information for potential education reforms.

Main Theme of the Conference is

“Questioning of Changes in Education: Looking for Priorities in Education”

 

Abstract Submission Deadline: 15 April 2019

Early Bird Registration Deadline: 22 May 2019

 

Conference Dates: 28 and 29 June 2019

 

Full Paper Submission Deadline: 15 September 2019

 

(After the conference, the interested presenters may submit their fulltext to Education Reform Journal on www.erjournal.org for possible evaluation.

 

Also the presenters who want to publish their papers in the e-book may send it edusref@outlook.com)

 

Conference Topics

Paper topics may include, but are not limited, to the following:

 

  • Educational Policies and Practices
  • Trends and Challenges Shaping Education
  • Large-Scale Assessments in Education (PISA, TALIS, PIACC etc.)
  • Economic Challenges (i.e. BREXIT) and its Reflections on Education Systems
  • International Benchmarking /Indicators
  • Comparative Studies in education
  • Social Transitions & School Culture and Climate
  • Socio-Psychological Analyses for Education
  • Social Media and its Reflections on Schools
  • Migration and Education Studies
  • Gender and Education Studies
  • Inclusive Education
  • School Improvement
  • Creativity and Innovation in Education
  • Innovative Learning Environments
  • Curriculum Critiques
  • School Leadership
  • Performance Appraisal in Education
  • Law of Education
  • Professional Development
  • Teacher Education
  • Developing Higher Education Systems

 

In order to make the productions of the conference efficient, the authors are expected to answer this question “What are the implications based on the results of study for potential education reforms? “ in the conclusion remarks in their study.

 

Conference Secretary

 

e-mail: edusref@outlook.com

 

 

Pitfalls of neutrality: What does inclusivity mean in libraries?

The ACRL Women and Gender Studies Section (WGSS) is looking for panelists for our accepted program at ALA Annual 2019 in Washington, D.C. The program is called “Pitfalls of neutrality: What does inclusivity mean in libraries?” It is scheduled for Saturday, June 19, at 9:00 am. Each panelist will have approximately 10-15 minutes to speak. To be considered as a panelist, please submit a brief summary of the issue(s) you would address, including your type of library to Laura Bonella (laurab@ksu.edu) by Monday, January 21.

Program description: Librarians are committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion, but what does this mean in today’s political climate? We are frequently required to make decisions that pit free speech against the comfort and safety of other patrons (e.g. allowing political or hate groups to use our meeting rooms), or called upon to defend our collection, exhibit, or program decisions in the face of patron challenges. Even our decisions about configuring the space in our libraries may create controversy – gender neutral restrooms, prayer rooms, lactation rooms, or how we make our buildings accessible.

We are looking for a diverse group of speakers who have handled these challenges and can share their experiences and how they dealt with various situations. Attendees will have the chance to ask questions and interact with the speakers and each other. We would like them to leave the program with strategies from different libraries to consider when examining their own perspectives on equity, diversity, and inclusion and how to address these issues in their libraries. The program is co-sponsored by the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom and will have a panelist from their office.

 

All the best,

Laura Bonella

2019 WGSS Program Planning chair