On March 9-11, 2012, fifty women gathered on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to explore the meaning of feminist theory and practice for Library & Information Science in the 21st century. The group included public and academic librarians, professors of LIS, doctoral students, masters students, and an undergraduate. Some who participated have long histories of personal and professional activism on behalf of women; others had never attended a feminist gathering before. Some are seasoned professionals and scholars; others are just starting their careers in LIS. All were passionate about exploring questions of gender in librarianship, archives, and related information fields.
The unconference was jointly sponsored by the Center for Information Policy Research and the School of Information Studies (UW-Milwaukee), the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), the School of Library and Information Studies (UW-Madison) and Wisconsin Women Library Workers. Titled “Out of the Attic and Into the Stacks,” it aimed “to explore feminism as theory, boundary, ecology, method, flavor, relationship, and epistemology.” The event was deliberately unstructured, so that the participants could identify their own priorities and set the agenda. After a Friday evening keynote, participants settled in for a day and a half of brainstorming, discussing, and networking.
This poster analyzes the unconference from the viewpoint of two participant-observers, one an academic librarian and the other a PhD student in LIS, and presents feedback from other participants. The poster identifies the prominent themes and tensions that surfaced and the proposals for follow-up actions. D'Arpa and Searing also consider the pros and cons of the unconference format as a means of advancing feminist thinking and action in our field.unpublishedis peer reviewe
