Lawrence defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate E.E. Lawrence successfully defended their dissertation, "Reading for Democratic Citizenship: A New Model for Readers' Advisory," on March 28.

Their committee included Associate Professor Emily Knox (chair); Associate Professor Kate McDowell; Professor and Dean Allen Renear; and Jonathan Furner, professor and chair of the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

From the abstract: Readers' advisors are tasked with suggesting leisure reading materials to library patrons. The current discourse within the field has it that these advisors ought to adhere to (what I am calling) a pure preference satisfaction model wherein they aim to satisfy readers’ existing preferences without judging or altering them. While such an approach to Readers' Advisory (RA) is politically commendable in some respects, in this dissertation I interrogate the incompatibilities that have emerged between contemporary theory and practice as a result of librarians’ core commitments to social justice, diversity, and democracy. In so doing, I provide a critical inventory of the (in some cases intractable) tensions evident in RA service, going on to offer normative critiques of the dominant moral framework underpinning RA. In each case, I propose theoretical revisions that will help to alleviate harms associated with the problems identified. In light of the cumulative effects of these revisions, I propose an alternative aesthetic education model for RA. Drawing on insights from reader-response theory, I argue that leisure reading is valuable in part because it offers us opportunities to deliberate on our aesthetic experiences. Ultimately, I hold that RA-as-aesthetic-education functions as a dynamic forum for readers to practice democratic citizenship and thus develop its requisite character traits. The new model both furthers the overarching political aims of the public library and reestablishes continuity between theory and critical practice. 

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

iSchool to present research at TPRC 2025

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC 2025), which will be held from September 18–20 in Washington, DC.

Get to know Simit Shah, MSIM student

Simit Shah worked as a consultant for Deloitte in India before enrolling in the MSIM program to strengthen his analytical and business skills. Over the summer, he applied the knowledge gained from his iSchool coursework during an internship as a technology risk consultant at EY.

Simit Shah

Pila awarded Ruth Fine Memorial Student Loan

MSLIS student Nathaniel Allen (Nat) Pila has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Ruth Fine Memorial Student Loan, awarded annually by the District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA). The award will support Pila as he begins his studies in the iSchool at the University of Illinois. 

Nathaniel Allen Pila

New grant to help Multiple Sclerosis patients manage depression

Associate Professor Jessie Chin has received a $215,000 grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS grant RFA-2411-44091) for a two-year project to improve how people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) manage depression. 

Jessie Chin

Internship Spotlight: National Endowment for the Humanities

PhD student Owen Monroe reflects on his internship with the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities, held from May to December 2024. Last month, the NEH programs officer Monroe worked with during his internship discussed some of their work at the Digital Humanities conference in Lisbon, Portugal. 

Owen Monroe