From October 6-8, the Syracuse University School of Information Studies brought a powerful presence to Kansas City for the annual ALISE conference, with five faculty members and five students delivering 14 presentations spanning autoethnography, community-responsive librarianship, information literacy, and decolonizing pedagogies.
After Drs. Gray and Chancellor’s presentations: From Left to Right: Dr. LaVerne Gray (faculty), Dr. Christopher Stewart (faculty), Dr. Beth Patin (faculty), and Dr. Renate Chancellor (faculty)
The impressive showing reflects years of deep commitment to the LIS education community. Dr. Renate Chancellor, who has attended every ALISE since 2003, finds the conference essential for its “vital space for dialogue, reflection, and collaboration among Library and Information Science educators and researchers.” This year, she participated in three panels exploring human-centered curriculum design for working with vulnerable populations and contributed to discussions on the forthcoming Constellation of Insanity collection.
For newer attendees, ALISE has proven equally transformative. Sarah Appedu, a PhD candidate who first attended in 2023, was selected as a 2024 ALISE Leadership Development Intern. She describes discovering “a welcoming space for critical and justice-oriented research where I could meet well-known scholars in a comfortable forum.” This year, Appedu presented a juried paper on “Livingness as a Liberatory Framework for Decolonizing LIS Praxis” and participated in panels on graduate pedagogy.
Leah Dudak, PhD Candidate and Her Quilts
The 2025 conference theme, “Decolonising Pedagogies: Agency, Identity, Practices,” resonated deeply across presentations. Dr. LaVerne Gray participated in three panels addressing dismantling entrenched structures in LIS, examining the Constellation of Insanity collection, and reviewing the Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship Program’s impact. She noted that Safiya Noble’s keynote “addressed the current climate for Libraries, faculty, and academia” while highlighting opportunities within current challenges.
Dr. Beth Patin, attending ALISE since 2011, presented both a juried paper titled “Moving Beyond Metaphor” with recent alumnus Tyler Youngman and participated in “The Great Unravelling: Unmaking and Remaking Information Worlds” panel. Reflecting on the conference’s enduring value, Patin shared a meaningful moment: “My favorite part was probably the keynote by Safiya Noble. She didn’t give a presentation but instead we talked about the state of the world, and specifically our field… she told me she’d been following my work and was proud of me. Quite something when your heroes have such praise for your work.”
Jeongbae Choi (PhD Candidate) presenting his doctoral dissertation.
The conference also showcased innovative forms of scholarship. PhD candidate Leah Dudak presented two creative works during the Lunch and Learn session—”If Art Requires Words, Shouldn’t Words Require Art?” and “The Eye in I”, alongside a WIP poster with Dr. Rachel Ivy Clarke on the Pathways to Librarianship program. “I loved being able to present my quilts!” Dudak reflected. “It was great to have other ways of research and knowledge sharing represented.” As a disabled scholar, she emphasized how “ALISE has been vital in connecting with other disabled scholars, making this whole Ph.D. process seem less lonely.”
After the keynote: From Left to Right: Leah Dudak (PhD Candidate), Dr, Beth Patin (faculty) Tyler Youngman (alumni), Dr. LaVerne Gray (faculty), and Sarah Appedu (PhD Candidate)
PhD candidate Jeongbae Choi presented his dissertation poster “‘Realizing’ Information Literacy: A Philosophical Argument” at the Jean Tague Sutcliffe Doctoral Student Research Poster Competition. He values ALISE as “the best venue for engaging with researchers in information literacy and LIS education,” finding the feedback “intellectually enriching and motivating for the next stages of my research.”
The shared commitment to equity, innovation, and pedagogical excellence created what Dr. Chancellor described as “shared purpose” that was “inspiring.” The Syracuse iSchool’s substantial ALISE presence underscores the program’s commitment to advancing critical, justice-oriented scholarship in library and information science education. As Appedu noted, “library education is a particularly important and vital area of iSchool education right now,” and this conference demonstrated the concentration of voices at Syracuse working to reshape the field.