10/19 Speaker: Ann Bishop

Research and Action in Communities--Ann Peterson Bishop, UIUC GSLIS

Action research, as a practice of progressive, reflective inquiry and problem-solving, is an important methodology in community informatics research and practice. Ann Peterson Bishop, an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ann will discuss the conceptual foundations and methods of action research, drawing on examples from her own and others' work. Ann's work focuses on participatory and community-based approaches to the development of information systems and services, especially those serving marginalized groups in society. Her principal partners in this work include SisterNet and B.T. Washington Elementary School in Champaign-Urbana and the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago. She has served as PI or co-PI on research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, the W. C. Kellogg Foundation, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. At the University of Illinois, Ann is co-director of the Community Informatics Initiative. She teaches courses in participatory action research, social justice in the information professions, and community information systems.

Recommended pre-reading (read #1, pick 2 of #2-4):

1. Bishop, A. P. (2005). Community informatics: Integrating action, research and learning. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science &Technology, Aug/Sep 2005, 6-10. http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Aug-05/bishopbruce.html


2. Afya: Social and Digital Technologies that Reach across the Digital Divide by Ann Peterson Bishop, Imani Bazzell, Bharat Mehra, and Cynthia Smith, First Monday, volume 6, number 4 (April 2001), URL http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_4/bishop/index.html


3. Nelson, V., & Bishop, A. P. (2007). The community is the curriculum. [Paper to be presented at the 4rd Prato International Community Informatics Conference 2007: Communities and Action] Available at http://www.cii.uiuc.edu/node/297.


4. Gretencord, T. C., Jeong, S., Mendoza, K., Lin, C-C., Serbanuta, C., Cruz-Santiago, M., Lowe, L., Bishop, A., & Bruce, B. C. (2007). Learning at the border: How young people in informal settings use new media for community action and personal growth. [Paper to be presented at the 4rd Prato International Community Informatics Conference 2007: Communities and Action] Attached here.

Please do the pre-reading and post a thought, comment or question for Friday's speaker as a comment to this post by Thursday night. This is for class discussion/participation purposes only, but will also serve to prepare you to ask a question or make a comment in the Q&A period after Ann's talk. Thanks.