Tilley to deliver Banned Books Week talk at Harper College

Carol Tilley
Carol Tilley, Associate Professor

Associate Professor Carol Tilley will participate in Banned Books Week with a talk at Harper College titled, “Comics, Classrooms, and Censorship.” Her talk is one of several events hosted by Harper College Library during the week of September 27 - October 3, when the American Library Association will hold their annual celebration of the freedom to read. She will speak on Wednesday, September 30, at 12:30 p.m.:

Comics and graphic novels are enjoying great popularity among readers and teachers at all levels today, but this hasn't always been true. This talk will feature stories of some of the pioneering educators and persistent readers as well as would-be censors in comics' history (and present).

"Comics have been in the headlines this past couple of years as students (and legislators) have challenged whether titles such as Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis are appropriate texts for college courses. I look forward to highlighting these debates and sharing some of the history of how comics have played a role in higher education," Tilley said.

Tilley is a nationally known expert in comics readership and history and has worked with many of the comic-related archives and research collections in the U.S. Her research has focused on comics/youth engagement—historically and today—and the many factors that have influenced engagement, such as the role of librarians and educators. She has looked closely at the attitudes and practices of librarians, which may have impacted comics readership and certainly influenced access.

Tilley’s research has been published in several academic journals, including the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Information & Culture: A Journal of History, and Children’s Literature in Education. Her research on anti-comics advocate Fredric Wertham has been featured in The New York Times and other media outlets. At GSLIS, she teaches courses in comics reader’s advisory, media literacy, and youth services librarianship.

Tags:
Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Knox appointed interim dean

Professor Emily Knox has been appointed to serve as interim dean of the School of Information Sciences, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. Until officially approved, her title will be interim dean designate. The appointment will begin April 1, 2025.

Emily Knox

iSchool instructors ranked as excellent

Fifty-six iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2024 and Winter 2024-2025. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the ratings from the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. 

iSchool Building

Ocepek and Sanfilippo co-edit book on misinformation

Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo have co-edited a new book, Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons, which was recently published by Cambridge University Press. An open access edition of the book is available, thanks to support from the Governing Knowledge Commons Research Coordination Network (NSF 2017495). The new book explores the socio-technical realities of misinformation in a variety of online and offline everyday environments. 

Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons book

Faculty receive support for AI-related projects from new pilot program

Associate Professor Yun Huang, Assistant Professor Jiaqi Ma, and Assistant Professor Haohan Wang have received computing resources from the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), a two-year pilot program led by the National Science Foundation in partnership with other federal agencies and nongovernmental partners. The goal of the pilot is to support AI-related research with particular emphasis on societal challenges. Last month, awardees presented their research at the NAIRR Pilot Annual Meeting.

iSchool participation in iConference 2025

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2025, which will be held virtually from March 11-14 and physically from March 18-22 in Bloomington, Indiana. The theme of this year's conference is "Living in an AI-gorithmic world."