NYU Libraries will host a Symposium on Critical Pedagogy and Librarianship May 17– May 19, each day, 11am – 4pm EST. The virtual event is open to everyone: students, faculty, and the general public. The Symposium will explore a pedagogy that interrogates and explores frameworks of power, and was organized by a committee of librarians from ACRL/NY, Metro, and Library Juice Press. Workshops, panels, posters, presentations, and lightning talks will address frameworks of anti-oppression, articulating a vision of justice within the field of library professionals.
Why a critical pedagogy?
A critical lens can provide us with tools to understand and dismantle the structures of power and oppression within the library. In particular, a critical pedagogy that draws on Critical Race Theory (CRT) demands that we understand the centrality of race, racism, and the complexities of intersectional marginalities. CRT understands racism as a phenomenon that is both ordinary and aberrational. Though CRT stemmed from legal studies, it interoperates with multiple fields, including education, and has expanded to communities that center race alongside political identities (TribalCrit, QueerCrit, etc.), furthering the combat of white supremacy.
Within Library and Information Science (LIS), we are witnessing a profound and important shift. Critical Pedagogy has been woven into theoretical spaces for years—since the 2010 publication of Critical Library Instruction (Accardi, Drabinski, Kumbier, Eds., Library Juice Press). The 2021 publication of Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies through Critical Race Theory (Leung and López-McKnight, Eds., MIT Press) is the first collection to directly focus on CRT in LIS. The book is written solely by authors of color, including three NYU Librarians: April Hathcock, Anastasia Chiu, and Lori Salmon. Identifying criticalities in library work is a sea change. The theoretical frameworks in foundational texts are the spine of positions opening at academic libraries around the country, including a new Critical Pedagogy Librarian position at NYU.
How did the Symposium come to fruition?
Initially, the idea was to explore methods of teaching in a remote environment. Co-sponsored with the Reference and Instruction Special Interest Group (SIG) by the Metropolitan Library Council, the Symposium’s groundwork was laid by two previous Case Studies in Critical Pedagogies forums held in November 2020 and February 2021. The SIG worked alongside colleagues from the Library Information Literacy Advisory Council (LILAC) of the City University of New York, and the ACRL/NY, the New York chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
The coordinating committee has 50 percent BIPOC representation and 50 percent queer representation. We bring a variety of experience and positionalities to this work, all as providers of public services in libraries. As symposium organizers, an underlying goal is to hold ourselves to a deeper accounting, and to think more rigorously and clearly by inviting critiques along the lines of race/ethnicity, indigenous and decolonial perspectives, and issues of labor and class, and inclusive of gender/sexuality.
What will the Symposium offer?
The Symposium features more than 50 presenters, showcasing over 30 panels, presentations, workshops, posters, and lightning talks, with two amazing keynotes, including some of our very own NYU librarians: Jennifer Stubbs, Research and Reference Services Librarian (NYU Shanghai), and Adjunct Reference Librarians Gina Levitan and Betsy Yoon. Subjects range from critical analysis to practical applications in: reference by mail to prisons, diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), LGBTQ+ cataloguing, MLIS interrogations, race-centered services, indigenous studies, silos, echo chambers, COVID implications, public libraries, zines, and womanism.
The opening keynote speaker is Jamillah R. Gabriel, founder of Call Number, a book subscription box specializing in Black literature and authors. Gabriel co-hosts LibVoices, a podcast that interviews BIPOC librarians and information professionals about their experiences in LIS. Gabriel’s research focuses on issues at the nexus of information and race through a critical theorist lens, and interrogates how hegemonic information systems and institutions impact Black people and communities. Our closing keynote will be a conversation between the co-founder of Cite Black Women, Christen A. Smith, and the co-founder of Black Women Radicals, Jaimee A. Swift. The moderator will be Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, NYU Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement and co-organizer of the Symposium.
Registration is open until May 20th and is first come, first served. The Symposium will be held on Zoom with closed captioning and recording for both keynotes (other events will not be recorded). Register here.
Keynotes: Meet the keynote speakers Gabriel and Smith
Full Schedule: https://mnylc.org/cps/?page_id=325
Registration: https://criticalpedagogysymposium.eventbrite.com/
Emma C. Antobam-Ntekudzi
Instructor/Librarian, Bronx Community College, CUNY
Vikki C. Terrile
Assistant Professor, Public Services and Assessment Librarian & Co-Coordinator of Information Literacy, Queensborough Community College, CUNY
Dianne Gordon Conyers
Associate Professor & Periodicals Librarian, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY
Kate Adler
Director of Library Services, Metropolitan College of New York
Linda Miles
Assistant Professor, Head of Reference & OER Librarian, Hostos Community College, CUNY
Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz
Associate Dean, Teaching, Learning & Engagement, New York University Libraries and Visiting Assistant Professor, Pratt School of Information
Elvis Bakaitis
Interim Head of Reference, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Stephanie Margolin
Associate Professor & Instructional Design Librarian, Hunter College, CUNY
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