Cordell to lead Mellon-funded project to study anti-Black violence in newspapers

Aproject to examine the circulation of newspaper reports about anti-Black violence in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century U.S. newspapers could provide context to the spread of white supremacist ideologies in social media today. “The Virality of Racial Terror in US Newspapers, 1863-1921” (VRT) is a partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northeastern University, and Washington University, with Illinois serving as the lead institution. VRT was recently awarded a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. The principal investigator at Illinois will be Associate Professor Ryan Cordell, who also co-leads Viral Texts, a project that examines the way in which information moved around the country and world through newspapers during the nineteenth century.

The VRT project will focus on eight case studies of anti-Black violence spanning from the 1860s to the 1920s. The team will draw on the Viral Texts project’s computational methods for reprint identification to trace how stories related to these case studies spread around the country, how the texts were edited for different audiences, and the emergence of new stories in response. The project will expand the work being done by the Racial Violence Archive project at Washington University to document and map the spread of violent events by examining large-scale collections of digitized newspapers.

According to the project team, while VRT will use the case studies to focus on antiBlack violence in the past, the methods can serve as a model for future research into violence against other racial, ethnic, or identity communities, both historically and currently.

Harry Potter and the Other: Race, Justice, and Difference in the Wizarding World University Press of Mississippi, 2022

Edited by Associate Professor Sarah Park Dahlen and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (University of Michigan)

Examines how the original Wizarding World in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series depicts diverse identities, social subjectivities, and communities. The book received a starred review from School Library Journal.

Foundations of Intellectual Freedom

ALA Neal-Schuman, 2022

Authored by Associate Professor

Emily Knox

Provides “a holistic view” of intellectual freedom by addressing the following topics in addition to book banning and internet filtering: the historical and legal roots of intellectual freedom; the intersection of intellectual freedom, freedom of expression, and social justice; professional values and codes of ethics; pro- and anti- censorship arguments; privacy and its relationship to information services; and emerging global issues and their impact on future intellectual freedom.

Documenting the Future: Navigating Provenance Metadata Standards

Springer, 2022

Authored by PhD student Michael Gryk, Rhiannon Bettivia (PhD ’16), and Jessica Yi-Yun Cheng (PhD ’22)

Explores provenance documentation, which is critical for authenticity, trustworthiness, and reproducibility in science; addresses the challenge of identifying which pieces of provenance are important versus which are extraneous as well as how to document this information.

Information Science: The Basics

Routledge, 2023

Authored by Teaching Associate Professor

Judith Pintar and Teaching Assistant Professor

David Hopping

Provides an accessible introduction to the field of information science, which is organized by following the key concepts, technologies, and professions associated with each step in the information life cycle.

Governing Smart Cities as Knowledge Commons

Cambridge University Press, 2023

Edited by Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, Brett M. Frischmann (Villanova University School of Law), and Michael J. Madison (University of Pittsburgh School of Law)

Examines how several cities handle ethical, economic, political, and social issues arising from their technologically advanced statuses.

The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others

Rowman & Littlefield, 2022

Authored by Adjunct Professor

Sidney Berger (MSLIS ’87)

Provides a definitive glossary of bookrelated terminology, bringing “the vocabulary and theory of bookselling and collecting into the modern commercial and academic world” through the addition of more than 700 new entries.

Beyond the Classroom Walls: Imagining the Future of Education, from Community Schools to Communiversities

Rowman & Littlefield, 2022

Authored by Professor Emeritus

Chip Bruce

Prompts readers to adopt “a critical and comprehensive view of education” that transcends the classroom, acknowledging that educational systems are organized in ways that complicate the integration of online learning, schools, and learning through work.

Crossed Wires: The Conflicted History of U.S. Telecommunications from the Post Office to the Internet

Oxford University Press, 2023

Authored by Professor Emeritus

Dan Schiller

Discusses the progression of telecommunications systems in the United States, drawing on archival documents to argue that it was not technology but political economy that drove the evolution of the telecommunications industry.