Professor Anita Say Chan will give an invited lecture at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on October 23. The talk, part of the "Confronted with America" series hosted by the Center for American Studies and Research, will be moderated by Jihad Touma, founding director of AUB's School of Computing and Data Sciences.

School faculty, staff, and students will present their research at the 2025 Illinois Library Association (ILA) Annual Conference, which will be held on October 14–16 in Rosemont. The theme of this year's conference is "You Belong Here."

Glen Layne-Worthey, associate director for research support services for the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC), and J. Stephen Downie, professor and HTRC co-director, have edited a new book, Navigating Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Heritage Organisations, which was recently released by UCL Press. 

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Nicola Carboni has joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He previously served as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in digital humanities at the University of Geneva.

Associate Professor Anita Say Chan will present research drawn from her new book, Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future, at two named lectures this month. The lectures, which celebrate Women's History Month, will be held at the University of Minnesota and Carnegie Mellon University.

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.

Professor Ted Underwood will give an invited lecture on artificial intelligence (AI) and the humanities on October 23 at the Wolf Humanities Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The lecture is part of the center's "Forum on Keywords" programming for 2024-2025.

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Kahyun Choi joined the faculty as an assistant professor on August 16, 2024. She most recently served as an assistant professor in the Department of Information and Library Science at Indiana University Bloomington.

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."

A paper coauthored by Assistant Professor Travis L. Wagner and Vanessa Kitzie, associate professor of information science at the University of South Carolina, titled "'In Many Ways, You're This Person Who's Providing Light': Theorizing Embodied Responses to Information Absence with LGBTQIA+ Communities," has been selected as the winner of the 2024 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE)/Bohdan S. Wynar Research Paper Competition. 

Doctoral candidate Yuerong Hu successfully defended her dissertation, "Complexities and Nuances of Online Book Reviews in Scholarly Research," on March 6.

Leep (MSLIS online) student Katherine Witzig is an advocate, scholar, and artist. She is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and an advocate within the 2SLGBTQ+ and disability communities, drawing upon her personal experiences to amplify the voices of underserved populations. 

Doctoral candidate Qiuyan Guo successfully defended her dissertation, "Exploring Chinese Celebrity Fans’ Online Information Behaviors and Understandings of Their Practices," on December 6.

iSchool faculty, staff, and students presented their research at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) annual conference, which was held from November 8-11 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The society is an international, nonprofit association that fosters interdisciplinary scholarship in social studies of science, technology, and medicine. 

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Travis L. Wagner will join the faculty as an assistant professor in August 2023. They currently serve as a lecturer in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland.

PhD student Jamillah R. Gabriel will give the keynote address at the 17th Annual Digital Commonwealth Conference, which will be held virtually on April 11. Digital Commonwealth provides resources and services to support the creation, management, and dissemination of cultural heritage materials held by libraries, museums, historical societies, archives, and other cultural institutions in Massachusetts. The theme of this year's conference is "Facing the Digital Future: Addressing Systemic Issues in Cultural Heritage."

PhD student Yingying Han is helping youth learn about Chinese American history and take action to preserve their cultural heritage. Through a multi-session workshop, which will take place the next four Saturdays from 10:00-11:30 a.m. at the University YMCA in Champaign, Han hopes to teach children about the contributions of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans to the history of the United States.

A project to examine the circulation of newspaper reports about anti-Black violence in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century U.S. newspapers could provide context to the spread of white supremacist ideologies in social media today. 

iSchool faculty, staff, and students presented their research at Digital Humanities 2022, the annual conference of the International Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations. The theme of this year's conference, which was held online on July 25-29, was "Responding to Asian Diversity."

Doctoral candidate Qiuyan Guo has received a 2022 Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from Beta Phi Mu, the international library and information studies honor society. Beta Phi Mu awarded six fellowships, valued at $3,000 each, to doctoral students who are working on their dissertations in LIS, information studies, informatics, or a related field. Guo received the fellowship for her dissertation, "Exploring Chinese Celebrity Fans' Online Information Behaviors and Understandings of Their Fandom."