iSchool researchers present community engagement research at ESC 2024

iSchool researchers will present their work at the 24th Annual Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC) International Conference, which will be held on October 9-10 in Portland, Oregon. The theme of the 2024 conference is "Pathways to Prosperity: Building Sustainable Futures through Community Engagement."

Teaching Assistant Professor David Charles and Teaching Associate Professor Martin Wolske will participate in the preconference, Engagement Academy for University Leaders (EA) Seminar, on October 7. This interactive session will feature testimonies, readings, and group discussions to address community engagement work in higher education.

At the Outreach and Engagement Practitioners Network preconference on October 8, Pathways for Change: Advice and Tools from Boundary Spanning Changemakers, Wolske will serve on the panel, Organizing Diverse Coalitions to Change Campus Culture to Support Community Engagement.

Jorge Rojas-Alvarez, PhD student in the Institute of Communication Research and research affiliate at the Community Data Clinic (led by Associate Professor Anita Say Chan), was selected to participate in the preconference, Emerging Engagement Scholars Workshop, an intensive professional development program for advanced doctoral students and early career faculty, on October 7-8.

Wolske will present "Locally Relevant, Globally Connected Prosperity: A Community Informatics Vision Statement" at the ESC conference on October 9. In his talk, he will introduce a proposed roadmap for navigating the complexities of society, technology, and global collaboration.

On October 10, Associate Professor Maria Bonn, Charles, and Wolske will present, "Engaged Unit Programs: an iSchool at Illinois Case Study," which they coauthored with Teaching Assistant Professor Brandon Batzloff. In their talk, they will share the iSchool's experience as an inaugural member of the University of Illinois Engaged Unit Program.

Also on October 10, Rojas-Alvarez will present "Connecting Technologies for Crisis: Champaign County Resources Project's Journey in Fostering Accountable Relationships and Technological Empowerment," which he coauthored with Chan and two of the Community Data Clinic's community partners, Danielle Chynoweth (Cunningham Township Supervisor’s Office) and Lynn Canfield (Champaign County Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Boards).

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Hoiem receives Schiller Prize for “Education of Things”

Associate Professor Elizabeth Hoiem has won the 2025 Justin G. Schiller Prize from The Bibliographical Society of America for her book, The Education of Things: Mechanical Literacy in British Children's Literature, 1762-1860 (University of Massachusetts Press). The prize, which recognizes the best bibliographical work on pre-1951 children's literature, includes a cash award of $3,000 and a year's membership in the Society. 

Elizabeth Hoiem

Chan authors new book connecting eugenics and Big Tech

Associate Professor Anita Say Chan has authored a new book that identifies how the eugenics movement foreshadows the predatory data tactics used in today's tech industry. Her book, Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future, was released this month by the University of California Press and featured in the news outlets San Francisco Chronicle and Mother Jones.

Anita Say Chan

CCB contributes to new Books to Parks site on Lyddie

The Center for Children's Books (CCB) collaborated with the National Park Service (NPS) to launch a new Books to Parks website on Lyddie, a 1991 novel by Katherine Paterson that highlights the experiences of young women working in textile mills in nineteenth-century Lowell, Massachusetts. 

Lyddie book

Layne-Worthey edits book on digital humanities and LIS

Glen Layne-Worthey, associate director for research support services for the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC), and Isabel Galina, researcher at the Institute for Bibliographic Studies at the National University of Mexico, have edited a new book, The Routledge Companion to Libraries, Archives, and the Digital Humanities, which was recently released by Routledge.

Glen Layne-Worthey

Wang group to present at BigData 2024

Members of Associate Professor Dong Wang's research group, the Social Sensing and Intelligence Lab, will present their research at the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData 2024), which will be held from December 15-18 in Washington, D.C. BigData 2024 is the premier venue to present and discuss progress in research, development, standards, and applications of topics in artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics.

Dong Wang