The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), an alliance of 59 national nonprofit organizations that is committed to the non-partisan defense of free expression, has elected Associate Professor Emily Knox as chair of its Board of Directors.
"Emily Knox is a leading voice in the free speech scholarship that is shaping future generations," said NCAC Executive Director Chris Finan. "She has been a dedicated member of NCAC’s board for eight years, and her leadership will help NCAC apply our 50 years of experience to the new challenges facing free expression."
The NCAC board plays an instrumental role in guiding the innovative development of resources and tools needed to defend freedom of expression. Representing a robust network of educators, publishers, and free speech thought leaders, the board works to empower our nation's teachers, librarians, students, and the general public, as many address growing attempts to ban books and instructional materials.
"Given the rise in challenges to school and library materials, the work of NCAC has never been more important," said Knox. "Programs like the Kids' Right to Read Project and broader work with the Coalition ensure that censorship cases across the country receive targeted, timely responses. I'm honored to serve as chair of the board."
Knox's research interests include information access, intellectual freedom, censorship, information ethics, information policy, and the intersection of print culture and reading practices. Her book, Book Banning in 21st Century America, was published by Rowman & Littlefield and is the first monograph in the Beta Phi Mu Scholars' Series. Her next book, Foundations of Intellectual Freedom, will be published by the American Library Association in December 2022. Knox serves as editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy and is a member of the Mapping Information Access research team. She received her PhD from the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University and her MS from the iSchool at Illinois.