Speaker Event: ‘Punks, Body Mods and Drag Queens’
Jessa Lingel has a way of looking at the world through a lens that includes the technological and information services needs of marginalized and oft-ignored populations. She’s an accomplished academic who uses her background in information management and as a librarian to navigate her current research into information inequalities and technological distributions.
Lingel is a dynamic speaker with a passion for serving the underserved and she’s the School of Information Sciences’ special guest speaker for CCI Diversity and Inclusion week. Her talk, “Punks, body mod and drag queens: Countercultural case studies for diversifying the web,” is one you won’t want to miss, so mark your calendars for 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 24, at the Scripps Convergence Lab.
As a bonus, Lingel will present, “It’s not like that: Notes on working in a small jail library,” at 1:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24, at the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center. Not an on-campus student? No problem! Catch both of Lingel’s presentations on our Facebook page via Facebook Live. If you join us for the second talk, you’ll be able to ask questions through the Live comments and a professor will field those to Lingel so she can answer them for you. SIS Director Diane Kelly was especially excited to have Lingel come speak during CCI Diversity Inclusion week because Lingel’s work illustrates values that are core to the information professions.
“Information sciences is not just about providing services, but it’s also about reaching out to communities to better understand how information can be used to support their goals and aspirations. Dr. Lingel’s scholarship and service are great examples of this,” Kelly said.
Lingel’s research focuses on three key areas: Alterity and appropriation, and investigations of how information and technology is altered, tinkered with, subverted and articulated by marginalized groups; Politics of infrastructure, where systems of categorization, organization and design can reveal underlying ideologies and logics; and technological activism as a way of exploring how socio-technical practices can contribute to projects of social justice. Lingel is an assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and is core faculty in the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in communication and information from Rutgers University and has an MLIS from Pratt Institute and a MA from New York University.
There will be a lot of other amazing presenters and activities offered throughout this informative and fun week – including the CCI Diversity Festival from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27 at the Communications Building Lobby and Patio. This is an all-campus barbecue with diverse music, dance, games for all ages, a photo booth and cultural performances. Below is more information about the presentations Lingel will be giving during CCI Diversity & Inclusion Week.
“Punks, body mod and drag queens: Countercultural case studies for diversifying the web”
More than a decade before Facebook launched, body modification enthusiasts were running their own social media platform, drawing users interested in piercings, tattoos and other modifications. In New Jersey’s longstanding punk scene, music enthusiasts have honed methods for simultaneously publicizing shows and evading police, using a range of technologies, some far older than many of the scene’s participants. Brooklyn’s booming drag community has revitalized New York’s drag culture, bringing an assortment of hacks and workarounds for crafting drag personas online. This talk examines the capacity of digital technologies to support countercultural communities, with the goal of exposing the multi-faceted nature of online life and to expose wider implications of how internet technologies are reshaping social interactions.
“It’s not like that: Notes on working in a small jail library”
Incarcerated populations are one of the most under-served communities that libraries can reach. Yet there are many misconceptions about jails and prisons, with narratives often shaped more by television portrayals than first-hand accounts. What does reader advisory look like inside? How do you develop collection development strategies? What issues emerge in balancing different stakeholders within jails and prisons? Drawing on years of volunteering as a Library Program Coordinator in a small jail library, this talk shares experiences working with incarcerated people, including lessons learned and mistakes made.