Join the Faculty of Information’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion unit (EDIU) for the iSchool Transformation Talks series, featuring scholars in information, design, technology, and museum studies. Discover their journeys and gain insights into transformative change and community-based solutions.
About this talk:
“Transformative Change Through Epistemic Justice” delves into the interplay between epistemicide, epistemic justice, critical technology, and their profound implications for society. Epistemicide refers to the marginalization, erasure, or destruction of certain knowledge systems, and this presentation explores how such harms impact diverse cultures, histories, and identities. Epistemic justice, on the other hand, signifies rectifying these injustices, fostering equitable access to knowledge, and promoting diverse voices.The discussion unfolds in the context of critical technology, emphasizing how emerging tools shape information landscapes, either perpetuating inequality or catalyzing transformative change. In this age of data-driven decision-making, the talk examines the social impact of these technologies, underscoring their capacity to reinforce or redress historical disparities. Information institutions can serve as engines of change, amplifying underrepresented narratives and fostering epistemic justice through a blend of critical technology, social awareness, and a conscious redesign of information science, museums, and libraries.
About the speaker:
Beth Patin is an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. Beth’s research agenda focuses on the equity of information in two research streams: crisis informatics and cultural responsiveness. She is the co-founder of the Library Information Investigative Team research group and a recipient of the 2023 Association of Library and Information Science Education Teaching Award for Early Excellence. Currently, she is working on projects about epistemicide (defined as the devaluing, silencing, killing, or annihilation of knowledge), libraries during disaster and crisis, and digital humanities and the Civil Rights Movement. In 2007, Beth was named an American Library Association Emerging Leader. In 2021, Beth received an Early Career Award from the Institute of Museums and Library services to focus on libraries and community resilience and is working on a grant from the Alabama Humanities Alliance to capture, preserve, and amplify the untold stories of the Civil Rights Movement in Huntsville, Alabama. She won back-to-back best paper awards in 2022 and 2023 at the Association of Library and Information Science Education conference and her journal article, “Interrupting Epistemicide” won the Best Information Ethics and Policy Paper of 2021.
Event Information & Registration:
Date: November 16, 2023
Time: 3PM to 4:30PM
Format: Zoom
Register here
