Petrella defends dissertation

Julia Burns Petrella
Julia Burns Petrella

Doctoral candidate Julia Burns Petrella successfully defended her dissertation, "Educating Pre-Service School Librarians about Race, Racism, and Whiteness," on December 4.

Her committee included Associate Professor Carol Tilley (chair); Associate Professor Kyungwon Koh; Assistant Professor Rachel M. Magee; and Sandra Hughes-Hassell, professor of information and library science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Abstract: The racial makeup of the field of school librarianship is overwhelmingly white, standing in stark contrast to the racial demographics of today's K-12 student population in our nation. Studies of white educators working with racially minoritized students show many detrimental effects, including deficits-based thinking and lowered academic expectations, highlighting how vital it is that pre-service school librarians learn about topics of race, racism, and the effects of whiteness in their school library preparation programs. Set within a framework of Critical whiteness Studies, this study investigates the structural and individual factors that influence the ways that today's pre-service school librarians are taught about topics of race, racism, and whiteness. The methodology includes interviews with school library program coordinators, course instructors, current school librarianship students, and recent graduates of school library programs, as well as document analysis of several educational standards. This study serves to inform the field of LIS education with descriptions of current pedagogical practices, perceptions, challenges, and successful strategies related to educating pre-service school librarians about race, racism, and whiteness.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Allgood is 'all in' on information science

MSLIS student Evan Allgood's volunteer work showed him that a career in information science would bring all his interests together in one field: accessibility, literature, history, technology, databases, and community building.

Evan Allgood

iSchool researchers to present at ASSETS 2024

iSchool faculty and students will present their research at the 26th International Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group (SIG) ACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2024), which will be held on October 28-30 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The conference is the premier forum for presenting research on design, evaluation, use, and education related to computing for people with disabilities and older adults.

MSIM students win Chicago round of NASA hackathon

A team including MSIM students Kritika Singh and Jainam Rajput won the Chicago hackathon of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, which was held in over 450 locations worldwide on October 5-6. The students partnered with computer science master's students Shraddhaa Mohan, Jinang Gandhi, and Sai Krishna Rohith and engineering in autonomy and robotics master's student Jugal Upadhyay to form Team Cuberts.

Members of Team Cuberts:  Jugal Bipinkumar Upadhyay, Jainam Rajput, Sai Krishna Rohith Kattamuri, Shraddhaa Mohan, Kritika Singh, and Jinang Gandhi.

Spectrum Scholar Spotlight: Armaan Singh Kalkat

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 Armaan Singh Kalkat graduated from the University of Florida with a BA in linguistics and BS in psychology (with an emphasis on neuroscience).

Armaan Singh Kalkat

iSchool well represented at ASIS&T 2024

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), which will be held on October 25-29 in Calgary, Canada. The theme of this year's conference is "Putting People First: Responsibility, Reciprocity, and Care in Information Research and Practice." The meeting is the premier international conference dedicated to the study of information, people, and technology in contemporary society.

iSchool Building