Taxonomic Repair Work

Time: Dec. 5, 2017, 9 a.m. - noon

Location: 304 Tolley Humanities Building

Melissa Adler (University of Western Ontario)

Melissa Adler follows her public lecture with a focused workshop on how classification systems -- from biological taxonomies to library organization systems -- reflect the values of their creators and exert power, especially over marginalized subjects. Please RSVP to Rachel Clarke by November 28; include any requests for accessibility accommodations.

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About the speaker:  Adler's research concerns the history of library classifications as they intersect with state and cultural discourses about race and sexuality. Her book, Cruising the Library: Perversities in the Organization of Knowledge (Fordham University Press, 2017), examines the history of sexuality through the lens of Library of Congress classifications. Adler's next project, tentatively called "Organizing Knowledge to Save the World," is a feminist critique of knowledge organization systems that aspire to universality in reach, scope, or design. She is particularly interested in the creators of systems from the Enlightenment era to the present who claim that global security and peace may be made possible through sharing knowledge, as well as the roles that knowledge organization plays in securing national identity and memory. Adler currently teaches Research Methods & Statistics in the MLIS program at Western University.

Rachel Clarke, Patrick Williams, iSchool, SU Libraries