A project co-led by Emily Knox is one of the twenty-five projects that recently received funding through the Chancellor's Call to Action Research Program to Address Racism and Social Injustice. The program is a $2 million annual commitment by the University of Illinois to respond to the critical need for universities across the nation to prioritize research focused on systemic racial inequities and injustices that exist not only in communities but in higher education itself. For 2022, the funded projects will focus on systemic racism and social justice, law enforcement and criminal justice reform, and disparities in health and health care.
Knox will serve on the project leadership team for "Building a Race and Immigration Dialog on Global Exclusions (BRIDGE) with New American Welcome Center (NAWC) to Recognize and Redress the Racial Structures in Immigration Policies and Processes," which received $75,000. This collaborative project will uncover pathways towards creating and sustaining local antiracist immigrant communities. The project team and YMCA-based NAWC will facilitate a workshop in which participants recruited from leaders of the NAWC's immigrant communities will reveal, archive, and map how they challenge and change the racial legacy of U.S. immigration policies. The project will conclude with an arts-based event as part of a public dialog to build antiracist solidarities.
Knox's research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, the intersection of print culture and reading practices, and information ethics and policy. She received her PhD from the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University and her MS from the iSchool at Illinois.