Incorporating Feminist Practice into Library Research
Free Online Presentation
Monday, July 26, 2021
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM CDT
Presented via Zoom
Registration Link
Librarianship has made strides in incorporating feminism into library services, but have you considered how librarians can embrace their personal beliefs as feminists within our scholarly pursuits? Librarians may be less aware of library research that incorporates feminism, or how we might already be putting feminist theory into practice without realizing it. In this session, we will start by sharing ways we incorporate feminist theory in our own work (including reference and instruction, collections, and scholarly communication) and invite you to share your own examples. We will then introduce a number of concepts from feminist ethics and theory that inform feminist research practice and showcase how these can be applied in any combination to produce research that is feminist. Finally, we will explore ways that feminism can be incorporated into research at many decision points, including approaches to research methods, citation, and the production and presentation of scholarship. Examples we will explore include methodologies that question and disrupt power imbalances, conscientious engagement with other researchers, feminist data visualization, and “slow scholarship.” We will conclude the session with a guided discussion regarding next steps for incorporating feminism into your own research practices.
Presenter Bios:
Kelsey Cheshire (she/they) is the Behavioral and and Social Sciences Research Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research interests include critical and feminist pedagogy, information literacy, and assessment.
Hillary Miller (she/her) is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her interests include copyright education for artists and creators, global perspectives on publishing and access to information, and community-engaged research dissemination.
Pattie Sobczak (she/her) is the Business and Public Affairs Collections Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research interests include leadership development in academia, libraries and video games, mentoring program development, and community outreach.
Additional Information:
The presentation is sponsored by the ACRL ULS Professional Development Committee. If you can’t make this session but wish to view a recording later, please register so that you’ll receive an email that includes a link to the video of the presentation.
Please direct questions to Laura Gariepy (lwgariepy@vcu.edu) or Sam Harlow (slharlow@UNCG.edu), co-chairs of the Professional Development Committee. A list of the committee’s past and future programs are available here.
