(via Laura Saunders, Simmons University)
Registration is open for the next LIS Pedagogy Chat, “Event, Experience, and Myth: Integrating Fictional Narrative and Historical Rigor into LIS Education”. It will take place online Friday, February 27, at 1:00 PM CDT.
Introducing three analytical lenses to understand complex historical phenomena–as event (i.e., historical reconstruction), experience (i.e., lived realities), and myth (i.e., symbolic representations)–historian Paul Cohen’s nuanced methodology emphasizes factors that contribute to shaping collective memory, user engagement, and interpretive frameworks, all of which are relevant to Library and Information Studies (LIS). Similarly, but in different ways, narrative fiction deviates from reality to various degrees, making the stories we tell informative analytical tools to examine the social, cultural, and historical contexts in which they are told and written. In teaching LIS history, incorporating common components of fictional narratives, combined with the historical rigor of Cohen’s methodology, offer valuable insights into critically exploring historical and archival records; pervasive social and cultural issues; and how the past informs the present and future.
The session will consist of a brief framing by Eric Ely-Ledesma (University of Central Missouri), followed by a facilitated discussion. Please register here.
LIS Pedagogy Chat, founded by Melissa Wong (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Laura Saunders (Simmons University), is an informal community of practice for LIS faculty and practitioners. Our sessions include a short presentation followed by casual discussion. Non-LIS people are also welcome. To view a list of additional upcoming webinars, please go here.
