Richardson honored for dissertation research

PhD student Courtney Richardson has been selected as the winner of the 2023 Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information. The award, which consists of $1,000 and a certificate, is given annually to a graduate student who is working on a dissertation on the philosophy of information, broadly construed.

In her dissertation, "Art as Information: Re-Reading Quicksand," Richardson reexamines personal reading and archival practices within library and information science from an artist’s perspective. She demonstrates how art practices (within graphic design and fabric-textile arts) are incorporated into the everyday acts of reading and knowledge production, such as storytelling and personal archiving. For her dissertation, Richardson uses graphical and textual artworks to reinterpret and analyze stories and archives embedded within Quicksand (1928), a fictional and autobiographical novel by Nella Larsen.

"Larsen's life and creative storytelling provide paths for how we may study cultural heritages and knowledges concerning African American womanhood and wellness," she said.

Richardson develops an "Art as Information" approach supported by Black feminist thought to reread and respond to the novel. This model consists of re-reading, annotating, and making—three familiar and overlapping practices experienced while reading and archiving, she said.

"This approach examines how we craft, document, process, and circulate information through making art. Approached as an information technology, artmaking provides additional pathways (extending beyond traditional or text-dominant forms) to explore what is informative and how we are informed through our creative processes. In my dissertation, I propose that making (art) while reading and in response to reading cultural narratives can help us think more critically (or openly) about various cultural knowledges and their pertinence within a progressive society," said Richardson.

The award committee noted that Richardson’s work is "theoretically grounded and methodologically innovative, and it brings together themes of embodiment, time, intersectional identity, and more."

Richardson is an artist-scholar whose research intersects art, archives, and African American histories to enhance public access to knowledge. She especially examines how artmaking is engaged to create and share information to help dismantle and recuperate from societal ills. Since her MFA program at Wayne State University, Richardson has worked on various assignments that explore archives and art pedagogy. Residing in her hometown, Detroit, Michigan, she continues to work with local archival projects while completing her dissertation.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

iSchool undergraduates selected as 2025 Community Academic Scholars

The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) has selected BSIS student Dhanvi Puttur and BSIS+DS student Lara Terpetschnig as 2025 Community-Academic Scholars. Representing nineteen majors and nine minors in eight colleges and schools at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and two additional universities, the eighteen scholars in this cohort encompass diverse fields of study, from community health to graphic design to statistics. 

BSIS+DS student Lara Terpetschnig and BSIS student Dhanvi Puttur

He receives Amazon Research Award to improve monitoring of Earth’s ecosystem

A new project led by Professor Jingrui He aims to help scientists monitor disruptions to the Earth’s ecosystem, such as climate change. She recently received support for her work through an Amazon Research Award, which includes $60,000 in cash and an additional $40,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits.

Jingrui He

Guan successfully defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Yingjun Guan successfully defended his dissertation, "Disambiguating Academic Institution Names: A Comprehensive Study of Authority Files, Linguistic Variations, and Computational Evaluation in PubMed Affiliations," on April 28. 

Yingjun Guan

Scholarship provides validation, motivation for Martinez

BSIS+DS student Fabian Martinez chose his major because he wanted to learn how to help people understand and interpret data and information. While his immediate plans include finding a job in data analytics, business analytics, consulting, or product management, his ultimate goal is "to create meaningful relationships and help make a meaningful impact in the world" in whatever way he can.

Fabian Martinez graduation

Spectrum Scholar Spotlight: Guadalupe Castillo

Twelve iSchool master's students were named 2024–2025 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Guadalupe Castillo earned her BA in international studies and Spanish and Latin American literature from the University of California, San Diego.

Guadalupe Castillo