Gatekeeping, the MLIS, and Social Justice Education
Panel | Tuesday, May 18, 2021 | 11:00am – 12:30pm EST
Recent studies have shown that social justice education is still lacking, if not absent across MLIS programs. As a gatekeeping tool into the profession, the content taught in MLIS programs has substantial implications for the future direction and focus of the work in the field. Additionally, what is learned through each program can radically transform a students perspective on the profession (for good or bad). This may either serve to trap LIS in an unresponsive, uncritical, or at worst oppressive state or instead lend a fresh vision to the possibilities and power of libraries and the critically minded people working within them.
In this panel, participants will hear from MLIS students at the University of Arizona about their experiences within an elective course on social justice in the information sciences and how the content and topics explored influenced how they view the profession, their future, and offer suggestions for change.
Presenters:
Michelle “Ashley” Gohr, Kristina Santiago, Aarti Kumar Pani, Mario Villa & Andrew Barber, and Jung Mee Park.
Michelle “Ashley” Gohr (they/she) is a First Year Experience Librarian with Arizona State University where she teaches information literacy to first year students and provides research assistance to students and faculty in women and gender studies, social justice/human rights, and other subject areas.
Kristina Santiago (she/ella) is an MLIS graduate student at the University of Arizona iSchool. She is a Knowledge River program scholar, and has centered Critical Race Theory and social justice education throughout her degree coursework and career activities.
Aarti Kumar Pani (she, her) is a first-year MLIS student, mother, Indian American, daughter of immigrants, anti-kyriarchist, recent returnee to the south with experience in the fields of education related non-profits.
Mario Villa (Apache) is in the final semester of the MLIS program at the University of Arizona. Mario’s research interests include Indigenous Nations’ information infrastructures, technology and inequality, and algorithmic accountability. He starts the PhD in Information Science and Technology program in the fall at the Syracuse University iSchool.
Andrew Barber is a MLIS student at the University of Arizona and shift supervisor at Arizona State University Library where he provides information literacy instruction and supervises student workers. His past research focuses on the U.S. prison system, the history of economic thought, critical librarianship, and LGBTQIA+ information services.
Jung Mee Park (she/her) is a MLIS student at the University of Arizona. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Cornell University. She hopes to work as an academic librarian specializing in data curation, scholarly communications, or user experience. Her forthcoming article in JELIS examines statistical training in LIS.