Clean stoves in India and Bill Gate’s chickens: re-imaging information literacy in a first year seminar, Lijuan Xu and Rohan Prabhu

Clean stoves in India and Bill Gate’s chickens: re-imaging information literacy in a first year seminar, Lijuan Xu and Rohan Prabhu

• 1.
  Clean Stoves inIndia and Bill Gates’ Chickens: Collaboration and Critical Librarianship in a First-Year Seminar Lijuan Xu Skillman Library Rohan Prabhu Dept. of Mechanical Engineering 16 April 2025
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  Re-envision information literacyin first-year seminars Introduction to library resources Basic information evaluation Problematize knowledge creation Curriculum Staffing constraints Boredom Faculty pedagogy Deconstruct authority Interrogate assumptions, intentions, and silences Challenge reductive ways of thinking 2
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  Course development This talkdescribes how we problematize knowledge creation and interrogate assumptions, intentions, and silences Student projects Class discussions 3
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  Course development FYS 123Looking within: Understanding Ourselves and Others through Design 4
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  5 Class discussion #1:Unmask sexism, reputational bias, and racism in peer review Reputational Bias (NIH) Racism and NSF grant reviews (2022) Who is missing from knowledge creation?
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  6 Class discussion #2:examine positionality, assumptions, and silences Ellen Kohl & Priscilla McCutcheon (2015): Kitchen table reflexivity Shopping list approach to positionality
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  7 Class discussion #3:Challenge reductive ways of thinking The reductive seduction of other people’s problems (2016) Why have improved cook-stoves… failed? (2017)
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  Student projects: Identifyand interrogate different forms of power and authority Male default thinking Ableism Racial stereotyping Accessibility Services at Lafayette 8
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  9 In conclusion, librarianscan, and should, move beyond traditional information literacy to examine and challenge power, positionality, assumptions, and silences. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009): Danger of a Single Story Questions?