Assistant Professor Elizabeth Hoiem, Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, and Associate Professor Jodi Schneider are among the twenty faculty from the University of Illinois System who were selected for the 2023-2024 cohort of the Public Voices Fellowship. The program is part of a national initiative led by The OpEd Project to help experts from underrepresented groups to be positioned as public thought leaders in their fields and contribute to the national dialogue around important issues.
Members of the cohort will attend four sessions during the academic year and will be paired with a journalism mentor for one-on-one editing and coaching, with the goal of publishing two or more op-ed pieces during the program. Those who complete the one-year fellowship will join a national network of peers, allowing for knowledge-sharing and innovation across multiple institutions.
Hoiem's work explores the history of technological innovations in children's literature, from early children's books and toys to contemporary applications of digital pedagogy. Her current book project, The Education of Things: Mechanical Literacy in British Children's Literature, 1760-1860 (supported by an NEH fellowship) uses children's literature, toys, automata, and textbooks to investigate the history of class politics in experiential education. Hoiem holds a PhD in English from Illinois and MA in literary and cultural studies from Carnegie Mellon University.
Sanfilippo uses mixed methods to address research questions about participation in and the legitimacy of sociotechnical governance; social justice issues associated with sociotechnical governance; privacy in sociotechnical systems; and differences between policies or regulations and sociotechnical practice. Her work practically supports decision-making in, management of, and participation in a diverse public sphere. She earned her MS and PhD in information science from Indiana University.
Schneider studies the science of science through the lens of arguments, evidence, and persuasion. Her long-term research agenda analyzes controversies applying science to public policy; how knowledge brokers influence citizens; and whether controversies are sustained by citizens' disparate interpretations of scientific evidence and its quality. She holds a PhD in informatics from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and master's degrees in library and information science from the University of Illinois and mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin