Call for Presentations: Politics of Libraries IV: “Vocational Awe”

December 2, 2021

Updated: January 12, 2022 (deadline submission date extended)

Politics of Libraries IV: “Vocational Awe”
March and April 2022
Online Speakers Series

Vocational awe describes the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in notions that libraries as institutions are inherently good, sacred notions, and therefore beyond critique. –– Fobazi Ettarh

Politics of Libraries is an ongoing conference series organized by an interested group of librarians, information professionals, students, and academics. The first conference was held in 2018 in Edmonton, Alberta, with the goal to provide a place for critical discussions on the politics of libraries that are too often excluded from workplaces and classrooms. In 2021, POL III hosted a multi-week remote speaker series on the theme of Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Intersectionality in LIS. With the success of the POL III speaker series, POL IV will continue with this format for the Spring of 2022.

We invite practitioners, scholars, activists, students, and other members of the general public interested in library allied information services to submit proposals on the topic of “vocational awe” in libraries.

Please submit proposals (not to exceed 400 words) for individual (20 minute presentations) and group/panel contributions using this form: by midnight January 31, 2022.

All submissions will undergo a double-blind peer review process undertaken by the conference organizers. Notification on the status of submissions will be made by February 1, 2022.

Presentations will occur on Fridays at 12pm MST time in March (beginning Mar. 18) and April 2022 (last presentation Apr. 29, 2022). Please indicate any limitations on availability for these dates.

Politics of Libraries is happy to facilitate ongoing access to presentations by either accepting a recorded presentation followed by live discussion or recording of the live presentation to be included in the Politics of Libraries Collection in the University of Alberta’s institutional archive (Educational and Research Archive) under a Creative Commons licence.

(Via Politics of Libraries)