Monday, March 14, 2022 News

SPARC Announces Knowledge Equity Seminar for LIS Students

Open Access

In cooperation with the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, SPARC is sponsoring the Knowledge Equity and Justice Spring Seminar (KEJSS), an intensive learning opportunity open to graduate students in Information Studies programs that will focus on critical issues in epistemic justice relevant to Library and Information Studies.

Convened by Dr. Stacy Allison-Cassin, the seminar will take place online over three weeks from May 9-26, 2022 and will cover topics including scholarly communication, language and marginalization, Indigenous knowledge, and issues related to knowledge, citation and the Global South. The seminar will invite participants to recognize knowledge as a site for justice and consider how to put knowledge justice into practice as future information professionals. 

Seminar guest speakers will include Leslie Chan (University of Toronto Scarborough); Priyank Chandra (Faculty of Information, University of Toronto); Alan Corbiere (York University); Stefanie Haustein (uOttawa); and, Anasuya Sengupta & Adele Vrana (Whose Knowledge?). These guest lectures will be open to the community, and the details for each are listed at the bottom of this page.

In addition to the learning outcomes for students, a further goal of this seminar is to catalyze a broader conversation about Knowledge Equity as an important component of education for Information Studies programs and future information professionals.

This opportunity is limited to twenty-five graduate students in an Information Studies program from any institution. Students will be selected through an application process. Full details about KEJSS can be found here, including a link to apply. Applications are due on April 4th, 2022 by 11:59pm PDT .

The Knowledge Equity and Justice Spring Seminar is supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

KEJSS Public Lectures

May 12th at 11am EDT
Knowledge Justice (Online): Different Ways of Knowing and Doing
Speaker: Anasuya Sengupta (Whose Knowledge?)

May 17th at 1pm EDT
Inequities of article processing charges: How the oligopoly of academic publishers profits from open access
Speakers: Stefanie Haustein & Leigh-Ann Butler (U. Ottawa)

May 19th at 1pm EDT
Resisting Colonial Validation: A Look At Issues of Evidence in Courts
Speaker: Alan Ojiig Corbiere (York University)

May 24th at 1pm EDT
Citation Justice and Reflections on Knowledge Equity
Speaker: Leslie Chan (University of Toronto Scarborough)

May 26th at 1pm EDT
The Politics of Design: Designing for Justice and Equity
Speakers: Priyank Chandra & Adrian Petterson (University of Toronto)

Note: as these lectures are designed for the KEJSS course, a separate Q&A and discussion for the students will be held immediately following the public lecture. Recordings for each will be made available online after the completion of the KEJSS series.

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