The Zoom link for this event: https://bucknell.zoom.us/j/92499458458?pwd=elFpelR6T0haWXdSMHVyNlB2WGJ6dz09
Not long ago, the commercial internet heralded an information utopia. Today, that vision seems far away. Access to information, knowledge, and news is constrained by paywalls on the individual level and by material inequalities on the national and international levels.
Who can access knowledge? Who controls access to knowledge? And who is able to distribute the knowledge they produce? In short, who exercises power in today's globalized knowledge economy?
Join us in-person in Hildreth Mirza Hall or online on October 24, 3 p.m. for a roundtable of researchers, information professionals, and activists from around the world who are seeking answers.
Panelists:
Miriam Conteh-Morgan is an associate professor and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Sierra Leone, where she had previously served as University Librarian. Prior to that, she was a faculty librarian at The Ohio State University, an ESL instructor at various institutions, including Harvard University Summer School, and a lecturer in Linguistics at University of Sierra Leone. She holds an MLS from Kent State University, an MA in Linguistics and English Language Teaching (University of Leeds, UK) and a BA in English and African History (University of Sierra Leone). In addition to her publications on library instruction to learners of English, she also has written and presented papers on the global flows of information, especially South-North, and more recently, on new roles for academic libraries in Africa.
Rodrigo Donoso-Vegas is a librarian who holds a BA in information management and an MA in Communications and New Technologies. He leads the Directorate of Information Services and the Libraries of the University of Chile. He specializes in university library management and has worked in both public and private institutions to spearhead automation efforts and the development of new products and services. He has spoken at conferences across Latin America on topics including digital libraries, repositories, and information management.
Dr Becs Kirk is the Publisher, Portfolio Development at PLOS with a central role in the strategic development of PLOS’ equitable publishing program, including being responsible for the expansion of new journal launches that focus on global societal challenges and PLOS ONE. She collaborates with the global open science research community to ensure a focus on real world impact in the portfolio. In over 10 years in publishing, she has transitioned from her role as an editor into portfolio expansion and strategy. She has contributed to cross-publisher equity initiatives, including as a co-Chair of the Society for Scholarly Publishing DEIA committee, and as a Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) SDG Publishers Compact Fellow.
Tomislav Medak is a researcher with a PhD on technopolitics and planetary environmental crisis from Coventry Unversity’s Centre for Postdigital Cultures. Tomislav is a member of the theory and publishing team of the Multimedia Institute/MAMA in Zagreb, a co-initiator of the Pirate Care project, and formerly an artist in the performing arts collective BADco. His research interests are in the environmental crisis, the political economy of intellectual property, and the unevenness of techno-science. At times, he also writes on theatre, dance and politics. He is proficient in minimal computing and amateur libriarianship.
