Save the Date: Knox to Present 3rd Annual ASIS&T President’s Lecture
ASIS&T is delighted to announce the 3nd Annual ASIS&T President's Lecture. The Lecture will be freely open to the public and delivered via Zoom to ensure that all who wish to may attend.
The ASIS&T President's Lecture will take place September 15 at 9:00 am Eastern Time (find your time here) and be presented by Emily J. M. Knox, PhD, MSLIS, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The lecture is free to attend but requires registration.
Information Access & Freedom of Expression
This talk will argue that information access and intellectual freedom should be understood as fundamental human rights that are rooted in freedom of expression and communication. It explains how censorship limits access to knowledge, autonomy, and human flourishing. Situating recent book challenges in the U.S. within broader social upheaval and institutional distrust, the talk will argue that freedom of expression remains essential to dignity, democratic life, and meaningful self-determination.
About Emily J. M. Knox, PhD, MSLIS
Emily is interim dean and professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include information access and intellectual freedom and censorship. She is a member of the Mapping Information Access research team.
The second edition of her book, Book Banning in 21st Century America (Bloomsbury), was published in January 2026. Her most previous book Foundations of Intellectual Freedom (ALA Neal-Schuman) won the 2023 Eli M. Oboler Prize for best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. She has been interviewed by media outlets such as NPR and the New York Times and also testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on book banning.
Emily previously served on the boards of the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and is a former editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy.
She received her PhD from the doctoral program at the Rutgers University School of Communication & Information.