| Tess Amram is the Special Materials and Continuing Resources Cataloging Librarian at the University of Colorado Boulder. They have long been interested in the way gender and trans identities interact with authority work. They began NACO training last year, and have used the increased understanding of how authority records are formed to look at how nonbinary individuals get represented in the name authority file, now that the 375 field is no longer in use. |
| Sarah Appedu (she/her) is a third year PhD student in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. She received her Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research aims to problematize discourses around technology and society through the lens of critical data studies, Black and queer feminism, decolonial and Indigenous studies, and critical post-humanist philosophy. Her goal is to help information professionals, including librarians and others, raise their critical consciousness around issues related to technological harms, especially in regards to emerging AI technologies, and direct their activism towards the social, economic, and political systems – and their elite leaders – that create these harms and represent them as inevitable. |
| Veronica Arellano Douglas is Head of Teaching & Learning at the University of Houston Libraries. She holds an MLS from the University of North Texas and a BA from Rice University. Her research interests include critical information literacy, inclusive pedagogy, and relational-cultural theory in libraries. You can read her writing at veronicaarellanodouglas.com. |
| Avi Bauer is a queer trans man and the Digital Initiatives & Scholarly Communications Librarian at the Boston College Law Library, where he dedicates a large portion of his time towards LGBTQ+ advocacy and activism in the workplace. He holds a MLIS from Simmons University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering and Women’s & Gender Studies from MIT. |
| Claudia Berger (they/she) is the Digital Humanities Librarian at Sarah Lawrence College and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Information at Pratt Institute. They are also an editor of dh+lib, where they are currently editing a pair of special issues on data physicalization and digital humanities instruction. They are particularly interested in how traditional crafting skills, like sewing, knitting, weaving, etc., can be integrated into academic research. |
| Susie Breier (she/her) is the Sociology, Anthropology, Women’s & Sexuality Studies Subject Librarian at Concordia University, Montreal. |
| Julia Bullard is an Assistant Professor at the UBC School of Information, where she is an uninvited guest on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded lands of the Musqueam people. Her research examines how metadata and vocabulary design (mis)represents communities and their materials. Her ongoing work focuses on how catalogues can more fully represent LGBT2QIA+ communities and how terms related to identity are included and revised in centralized and community-centred systems. She is the current President of the Canadian Association for Information Science and serves on the Subject Analysis and Access standing committee of IFLA. She holds a PhD in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, an MLIS from the University of British Columbia, and an MA in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory from McMaster University. |
| Mateo Leon Caballero is an Access Services Coordinator at Harvard Library and a first-year MLIS student at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. His areas of research include improvements to public services and the interactions between trans people and health care systems. He hopes to better understand the contemporary mechanics of censorship and practices of librarian resistance through gender- and sexuality- focused LIS spaces. Beyond his work in reference assistance and collections, he is currently focused on developing outreach opportunities in community with Latinx library workers. |
| Robert Canada is a dark humor, play, and aspiring television writer who is currently a student at the Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing at The University of Iowa. Robert has a bachelor's in communication from Grandview University and moonlights as a travel advisor to friends when he's not writing. His dream job would be to work in a television writer's room or for an equity theater in any capacity |
| Xavi Danto is a graduate student pursuing an MSLIS in Library and Information Science at Pratt Institute. As a writer, editor, and archivist, they have worked at various institutions including Wendy's Subway, White Columns, the Museum of Sex, and Paula Cooper Gallery. Their research interests lie at the intersection of subcultural archives and critical librarianship. |
| Jordan Dias Correia is a Ph.D. Candidate in Library and Information Science at Rutgers School of Communication and Information. His research interests focus on alleviating stigma and barriers for transgender people within medical and healthcare settings and interactions through the use of evidence-based interventions that supports healthcare professionals in delivering transgender healthcare access. |
| Gabriella Evergreen (she/her) is graduating Spring ’24 with a M.S. in Library and Information Science at Pratt Institute with advanced certificates in Digital Humanities and Spatial Analysis and Design. Her research looks at mapping in the digital humanities and the use of textiles and fiber arts as data physicalization. |
| Lara Fountaine is the Community Engagement Librarian at NC State University. She works to bring impactful and engaging programming to the Libraries through her interests in gaming, crafting, wellness, and reading. When she's not working, Lara enjoys playing video games, creative journaling, and spending time with family. |
| Elliot Galvis (he/him) is a library, media, and cultural studies researcher interested in how information systems and mythmaking processes coalesce to shape thought. He completed an M.A. in Digital Studies of Texts and Culture at the University of Chicago (2024) and received his B.A. in Classics from Princeton University (2021). His current research applies computational text analysis to study books challenged in the United States from 2010-2023, with a critical attention to the identification, labeling, and targeting of LGBTQIA+ texts during this period. Past research has included studying aberrant births and manufactured bodies in Archaic Greek creation myths and examining comic books and their reading cultures as sites of cultural reception and formation. During his time as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Thailand, Elliot co-organized a regional conference with the Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance drawing together Southeast Asian artists, activists, and scholars to explore culturally-informed strategies for climate action and adaptation in the region. Elliot is particularly interested in the intersections of horror, monstrosity, and queer theory given their influence on political and cultural imaginations. |
| Clark Geiling is a librarian and community historian with a background working in independent, LGBTQ+ archives. He has served on the board of directors for The Sexual Minorities Archives (SMA) in Holyoke, Massachusetts and holds a Masters in Library and Information Science from Simmons University. His interests include trans subjects in the archive, queer material culture(s), oral history, and archives as community spaces |
| Tierney Gleason works at the intersection of reference, instruction, and digital humanities in New York City. Before becoming an academic librarian, she worked at a range of nonprofit organizations dedicated to progressive social change. |
| Katharine Hall (she/her) is the Biology and Health, Kinesiology & Applied Physiology Subject Librarian at Concordia University, Montreal. |
| Natalia Kapacinskas is a Teaching & Learning Librarian at the University of Houston Libraries. She has an MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA from Southwestern University. Her research interests include disability in librarianship and critical information literacy. |
| Kawmadie Karunanayake (they/them) is a librarian and independent researcher who lives and works in Toronto. |
| Tanesa King is a cataloging librarian at the University of North Texas. While most cataloging work occurs behind the scenes, Tanesa hopes to connect with the university population by providing unbiased and inclusive subject access to resources. Her current research interests include reproductive health resources, reproductive rights activism, cataloging illustrated works (including zines), and radical cataloging. |
| Stephen G. Krueger (ey/em/eir) is the Affordable Course Content Librarian at the University of Kentucky. Ey holds a B.A. in English from Warren Wilson College and an M.S.L.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Stephen is the author of Supporting Trans People in Libraries (Libraries Unlimited, 2019), co-editor (with Keahi Adolpho and Krista McCracken) of Trans and Gender Diverse Voices in Libraries (Library Juice Press, 2023), and co-author of the Trans Advice Column. Ey is also the founder of the Trans and Gender Diverse LIS Network. |
| E.E. (Emil) Lawrence (he/him) is an assistant professor of Library & Information Science in the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University. Lawrence's research centers on issues arising at the intersection of library and information ethics, readers and reading, and aesthetics (especially as these pertain to leisure-time recommendation practices and structural inequities in print culture). His current work critiques the dominant ideology of sovereign consumption that underpins recreational reader services, and it aims to develop alternatives. He holds a PhD in library and information science from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in library science from the University of Maryland. |
| Brenda Linares is the Associate Deal of Library Services at UMKC Libraries at the University of Missouri- Kansas City (UMKC). Her background is in health sciences librarianship with emphasis in outreach, information literacy, DEI, health literacy, research, and evidence-based practice.She is also an adjunct instructor at Emporia State University. |
| Aeron MacHattie (she/her) is a Teaching and Research Librarian at Concordia University, Montreal. |
| Jennifer Marino (she/her) is a third-year medical student at UMass Chan Medical School in Massachusetts. She is one of the former leaders of her school’s chapter of Medical Students for Choice, and she is the founder and chair of the UMass Chan Reproductive Justice Advocacy Group. Her current goal is to pursue a career in psychiatry, with special interests in addiction and reproductive psychiatry. |
| Emerson Morris (he/they) is the Research Services Coordinator for Tomlinson Library at Colorado Mesa University. He is also a transgender man. He tries to be a safe place where people can access information and ask questions about being transgender and the processes and paths of transition. He is also working to dispel disinformation around being transgender and the medical (or not) paths that are available. |
| Meina Naeymirad (she/her) is a recent MSLIS graduate from the School of Information at Pratt Institute. She has completed internships at Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum working in digital archives and is currently a Research Experience Associate at the Vartan Gregorian Center for Research in the Humanities at New York Public Library. She seeks to grow her career as an archivist in spaces that leverage her passion for cultural heritage, art and technology. |
| tal ness (they/them) is the Linguistics Librarian and Social Sciences Diversity Resident at the University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor. They hold an M.S.L.I.S. from Chicago State University and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Washington, Seattle. They are a disabled, queer, existential humanist. Their research interests include examining the relationships between the individual and the State, performativity and identity, and the built environment and power within the field of library and information science. They serve as vice-chair for the ACRL Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee, are the Resident Liaison to the Diversity Alliance, a member of the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee, and an elected member of U-M Library's Library Diversity Council. |
| Marcus Ortiz is an early career library professional and is in his last semester of the M.L.I.S program at San Jose State University. His library endeavors are shaped by his identities, which have led him to develop programs and services that support LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC communities. In the long term, Marcus plans to pursue a second Master’s in Indigenous Education to support his goals of developing LIS curriculum that centers the needs of indigiqueer communities. Beyond his professional pursuits, Marcus finds joy in walks with his dog and spouse, playing video games, and exploring his culinary interests. |
| Alicia Puglionesi is a lecturer in the Medicine, Science, and Humanities program at Johns Hopkins University. She holds a PhD in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine from Johns Hopkins. Her recent book, In Whose Ruins: Power, Possession, and the Landscapes of American Empire (2022), examines sites of resource extraction that also yielded scientific and spiritual narratives core to US settler-colonialism. She teaches on health politics and social movements, the care economy, and science and medicine in genre fiction. |
| Sophie Reverdy is the Distance Learning Librarian at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. She holds a Master of Library Science from University of Maryland's iSchool. Since 2019, she has organized with Art+Feminism, a community of activists that is committed to closing information gaps related to gender, feminism, and the arts, beginning with Wikipedia. |
| Catherina Riesgo (they/them) holds a BA in Gender, Ethnicity, and Multicultural Studies from Cal Poly Pomona and is currently pursuing their MLIS at San Jose State University. In 2021, Riesgo created Moon Glow Radio, a community radio station that transcends physical boundaries, amplifying marginalized voices through “traditional” and non-traditional programming. Moon Glow Radio represents more than just a radio station, challenging institutional constraints by fostering inclusivity and empowerment, and breaking down barriers for those who have long been shut out. Since creating this space, the collective has blossomed into a community of over 50 DJs of all skill levels from all around the country. Riesgo's work is grounded in the exploration of queer affect theory, queer temporalities, and the transformative power of music-centered communities. |
| Matt Rohweder (he/him/his) is a liaison librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada and has been working as an academic librarian for the last decade. He is the recipient of the 2021-2022 OCUFA Award of Distinction in Academic Librarianship and serves as the Vice-President/President Elect of the Ontario College and University Library Association. His research focuses on allyship in Libraries for equity deserving groups and the role of library education in fostering safe spaces for the trans community. |
| Soren Ruppelius is an MSW student with Salisbury University, previously completing his MA in social psychology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has engaged in LGBTQIA2S+ advocacy and education internationally, working as a behavioral health professional in both inpatient and outpatient settings. He currently lives in Delaware with his husband and two cats, and spends his free time performing drag and teaching dance. Soren plans to continue dedicating his career to the promotion of queer and trans rights as a social worker, and aspires to make positive changes on a global scale. |
| Gina Schlesselman-Tarango (she/her) is a science librarian at Grinnell College. Her research interests include race and gender in librarianship, critical information literacy and peer learning in higher education, and the intersections of reproductive labor and information work. She lives in Iowa with her people, cats, and chickens, and volunteers with Planned Parenthood North Central States. |
| Kevin Sebastian (he/they/siya) is a queer Filipinx knowledge worker who explores the intersections of critical librarianship and epistemic decolonization. With an interdisciplinary background shaped by an MSLIS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a BA and an MA in English Literature from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and an AA in Art from the College of Southern Nevada, Kevin advocates for the creative transformation of librarianship to better serve marginalized communities. This interest in decolonial pedagogies informs their work as Teaching and Learning Librarian for Online Education at UNLV to create more inclusive, equitable, and socially just information spaces, especially in the digital realm. Presently, Kevin is exploring the nexus of queerness, embodiment, and information literacy to better understand information’s im/materiality. / When not musing about bigger questions than they can answer, Kevin likes to work with his hands: folding paper cranes and unicorns, tufting rugs, and occasionally penning bad poetry. |
| Robin Shamp (she/they) is a transgender student at Minnesota Technical and Community College. Currently she's pursuing a History degree with a focus on folk studies. She hopes to provide the ground-level perspective to the topic of reproductive health and analyze the problems people currently and have historically faced in seeking care. |
| Caleb Simone is a queer and trans man living in Brooklyn. He holds an MA and MS from Simmons University and is the Digital Archivist for the Municipal Archives of New York City. In his spare time he likes reading for pleasure, cooking with friends, and daydreaming about a world beyond capitalism. |
| Teresa Slobuski (she/they) is the Head Librarian for Penn State Brandywine’s Library. In this role, she oversees all operations of the library including the Pride+ collection which highlights LGBTQIA+ issues and stories. Slobuski is passionate about access and social justice and actively works to improve both representation and recognition of all in libraries. Slobuski completed her master’s degree in library and information science at Rutgers University. Their research interests include feminist analysis of leadership, LGBTQIA+ collections, and gaming in libraries. In their free time Teresa dotes on their three cats and one or more foster cats, builds custom mechanical keyboards, and watches what some may consider too much anime. |
| Matt Rohweder (he/him/his) is a liaison librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada and has been working as an academic librarian for the last decade. He is the recipient of the 2021-2022 OCUFA Award of Distinction in Academic Librarianship and serves as the Vice-President/President Elect of the Ontario College and University Library Association. His research focuses on allyship in Libraries for equity deserving groups and the role of library education in fostering safe spaces for the trans community. |
| Lynne Stahl is the Humanities & Interdisciplinary Studies Librarian at Wesleyan University, and her research interests span popular culture, queer theory, and critical information studies. Her work has appeared in journals including The Velvet Light Trap, Library & Information Science Research, Popular Culture Review, and College & Research Libraries News, and in public venues including The Rambling and The Washington Post. |
| Heath Umbreit (they/them), MLIS, is the Adult Services Librarian at Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Misinformation is a professional focus of theirs, and they study the phenomenon through critical examination of popular narratives about disinformation, the concept of epistemic supremacy, and the ways in which information and disinformation intersect with systemic power differentials in American society. As a nonbinary trans person, Heath intentionally brings a unique perspective to the field of professional librarianship and centers the values of equity, access, and social justice in their work. |
| Emily Vardell (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University. She teaches courses on the foundations of library science, reference, research methods, and health sciences librarianship. Her research interests focus broadly on information behavior, including health insurance literacy and infertility information practices. |
| B. M. Watson (@brimwats) is a disabled, white, queer & nonbinary settler living in Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish. They are currently a Vanier Scholar at University of British Columbia's iSchool focusing on histories of information and the practice of equitable cataloging in libraries, archives, museums, and special collections. Watson is the Archivist-Historian of the American Psychological Association's Consensual Nonmonogamy Committee (div44cnm.org) and the Haslam Collection on Polyamory at the Kinsey Institute. They serve on the editorial board of Homosaurus (homosaurus.org), an international linked data vocabulary for queer terminology, and are the Director of HistSex.org, a free and open access resource for the history of sexuality. In 2022-23, they were one of UBC Library’s inaugural Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Scholars-in-Residence. |
| Erica Weidner (she/her) is a 2024 graduate of Pratt Institute with a master’s degree in library and information science. She is hoping to pursue a career in academic librarianship and is looking for a role in reference and instruction. Her interests include utilizing internet meme culture in the service of information literacy and queering conceptions of time, space, and community. Outside of the library sphere, she is a poet, a copyeditor, and the editor-in-chief of a small online literary magazine. |
| Val Werner is the Historical Accountability Student Research Program Coordinator at Dartmouth Libraries. He has been involved in trans and gender-nonconforming restroom access advocacy for over five years, beginning when he was a Dartmouth student. He lives in Vermont, a state with some of the most inclusive restroom laws in the country, with his cat, Charlotte, who advocates passionately for bathroom access whenever she notices the door is closed. |
