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#digcult14 - Gender, Sexuality and Social Media
by Ben Light 05 Sep '14

05 Sep '14

Hi Folks, With the usual apologies for cross posting. Come join us for a symposium and PhD Masterclass at QUT. #digcult14 Making Digital Cultures of Gender and Sexuality with Social Media Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane – Australia. Organisers: Ben Light, Jean Burgess, Elija Cassidy and Stefanie Duguay 28/29 October, we will be hosting a symposium dedicated to questions of gender, sexuality and social media followed by a PhD masterclass for students interested in sociocultural qualitative approaches to digital media research. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars in the study of the digital, gender and sexuality, the symposium seeks to further interrogate questions of the contemporary making of digital cultures of gender and sexuality. Whilst difference-based approaches to understanding the gendered make up of social media users and audiences have been considered, this symposium focuses more upon the ways in which gender and sexuality are constructed and circulated with and by this media. Additionally, it will seek to explore how sociotechnical elements of social media are being transferred to other digital cultures of gender and sexuality. Speakers include: Kath Albury (University of New South Wales), Jenine Beekhuyzen (Griffith University), Jean Burgess (QUT), Paul Byron (University of New South Wales), Elija Cassidy (QUT) Stefanie Duguay (QUT), Clif Evers (University of Nottingham Ningbo), Ben Light (QUT), Sharif Mowlabocus (University of Sussex), Susanna Paasonen (University of Turku), Kane Race (The University of Sydney) and Emily Van Der Nagel (Swinburne University). The PhD masterclass on the 29 October will be to enable a small group of 15-20 PhD students to engage with a group of internationally recognized researchers, and with each other, to discuss their work and their plans for its development. Both events are free to attend, but places are limited so early registration is advised. More details can be found at: http://www.digcult.org NB: applications for the PhD masterclass need to be submitted as per the instructions on the symposium website by close of play in your respective time zone, by 19 September 2014. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application no later than the 25 September 2014. Best wishes, Ben. Ben Light PhD MSc BA(Hons) Professor of Digital Media Studies Creative Industries Faculty School of Media, Entertainment and Creative Arts Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries Precinct Z1-515 Musk Avenue Kelvin Grove QLD 4059 Australia Phone: +61 7 3138 8280 Twitter: @doggyb QUT: http://www.staff.qut.edu.au/staff/lightb Open Access Publications: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Light,_Ben.html Personal Site: http://www.benlight.org<http://www.benlight.org/>

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Reminder: CFP Rhetoric and Experience Architecture
by Liza Potts 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

Hi AOIR, Reminder! Michael Salvo and I are pleased to invite you to contribute to our collection Rhetoric and Experience Architecture. We welcome proposals from academic researchers and industry practitioners. Please feel free to contact us about this book project. We will both be at CPTSC and SIGDOC this year, and we are happy to meet with you to discuss your proposal! CFP: Rhetoric and Experience Architecture Experience architecture (XA) is an emerging area of study focused on the research and practice of creating technologies, products, policies, and services that serve the needs of various participants. Situated in the Humanities and Social Sciences, XA focuses onissues addressing usability, interaction design, service design, user experience, information architecture and content management for websites, mobile apps, software applications, and technology services. This collection will focus on the research, theory, and practice of creating compelling experiences across digital and physical spaces based on the foundation of rhetoric. This edited collection will consist of an editors’ introduction and three sections. The first section contains eight to twelve chapters that define field connections between rhetoric and experience architecture. The second section is formed by eight to twelve chapters focused on research methodology. The third section includes eight to twelve short vision statements, modeled after the NEH white paper genre, which offer several paths for exploring interdisciplinary trajectories between rhetorical studies and experience architecture. Please find the full CFP here: http://www.lizapotts.org/research/rhetoric-and-experience-architecture/ Deadline for 500-750 word proposals: Oct. 1, 2014 (Notification by Dec. 1, 2014) Date for full manuscripts: June 1, 2015 Responses to manuscripts by August 1, 2015) Best, Liza (and Michael) ______________________________________________________ Liza Potts, Ph.D. Director of Experience Architecture // College of Arts & Letters Senior Researcher // WIDE Research Associate Professor // Department of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures Campus: 291 Bessey Hall Digital: Gtalk LKPotts / Skype: LKPotts / Portfolio: http://www.lizapotts.org/

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Seeking SWTOR players
by nkarlova 04 Sep '14

04 Sep '14

Hello AOIRers, Please distribute widely -- Thank you!! _____________________________________________ I am conducting a study with the University of Washington Information School. I am looking for study participants to learn more about how teams of online game players make judgments about information. Are you currently a member of a Guild in Star Wars: The Old Republic? *U.S.-based servers only If so, you are eligible to participate in a study to learn more about how teams of online game players make judgments about information. Participation is voluntary. If you would like to volunteer, I will interview you and may ask to observe you playing the game in the game world with your Guild. The interview will last about 60 minutes or so. If you would like to participate or learn more about this study, please contact: Natascha Karlova nkarlova(a)uw.edu http://students.washington.edu/nkarlova/ Please note: The confidentiality of information sent by email cannot be guaranteed. This study is being conducted with the University of Washington Information School. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Natascha Karlova, M.S. Ph.D. Candidate, Information Science The Information School University of Washington -- Seattle nkarlova(a)uw.edu

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Relevant fiction on all things data protection / technological progress / big-data marketing
by max gindt 03 Sep '14

03 Sep '14

Dear Air-L-isti, some time ago I reviewed a few fiction- and non-fiction-books portraying technological change, data protection questions, big data-based marketing etc. Morozov, the latest Pynchon, Jaron Lanier, Mercedes Bunz, Dave Eggers' The Circle among other books, the aim being popular books illustrating the many near-future tech-related questions of our time. My question to the distinguished readers of this list being this: With which book would you personally continue the series? No matter what format or perspective (or degree of complexity). Thank you very much for any pointers and advice, Max Gindt Brussels

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Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining
by Pimple, Kenneth 03 Sep '14

03 Sep '14

This is not an endorsement, but some might be interested in the "Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining" recently published by Springer. Nearly 2,500 pages with 611 illustrations in 3 volumes for $1,850 (hardback) or $1,500 (eReference). Much more information at http://www.springer.com/computer/communication+networks/book/978-1-4614-616… Ken ===== Kenneth D. Pimple, Ph.D. Director of Teaching Research Ethics Programs, Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions Editor, Emerging Pervasive Information and Communication Technologies (PICT): Ethical Challenges, Opportunities and Safeguards (Springer) http://www.springer.com/computer/general+issues/book/978-94-007-6832-1 Indiana University 618 East Third Street Bloomington IN 47405-3602 (812) 856-4986 FAX 855-3315 pimple(a)indiana.edu http://poynter.indiana.edu/pait/ Blog: http://ethicalpait.blogspot.com/ Twitter: @Ethical_PICT - https://twitter.com/Ethical_PICT

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@HASTS_MIT, a collaborative Twitter project
by Amy Johnson 03 Sep '14

03 Sep '14

I'm very excited to announce that @HASTS_MIT<https://twitter.com/HASTS_MIT>, a collaborative Twitter project, officially launches today! HASTS is History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology & Society at MIT. Each week of the fall 2014 semester a different HASTS community member -- students, faculty, alumni, staff, affiliates, etc. -- will run the @HASTS_MIT account. Check it out for thoughts on research, projects, reading, fieldwork, and much more. We've got a great lineup for the semester, reflective of the many interests of the HASTS community. Come join us! You can follow the account<https://twitter.com/HASTS_MIT> or, if you don't have a Twitter account of your own, just stop by now and then at https://twitter.com/HASTS_MIT<https://twitter.com/HASTS_MIT.>. September schedule (bios below) 9/1 - 9/7 Mitali Thakor 9/8 - 9/14 Ian Condry 9/15 - 9/21 Amy Johnson 9/22 - 9/28 Wade Roush 9/29 - 10/5 Lan Li If you have questions or comments about the project, please contact me at amyj(a)mit.edu. Twitter works, too ~ @shrapnelofme<https://twitter.com/shrapnelofme>. And for those of you in the US today, Happy Labor Day! ~Amy Mitali Thakor<http://web.mit.edu/hasts/graduate/thakor.html>, HASTS PhD candidate Mitali studies sex work, sex trafficking, technology, and digital forensics. Mitali uses Feminist STS and critical race studies to explore the ways in which activists, computer scientists, lawyers, and law enforcement officials negotiate their relationships to anti-trafficking via emergent technologies and discourses of carceral control. Mitali also tweets as @mitalithakor<https://twitter.com/mitalihttps://twitter.com/mitalithakorthakor>. Ian Condry<http://web.mit.edu/anthropology/people/faculty/condry.html>, HASTS faculty Ian Condry is a cultural anthropologist and associate professor in Foreign Languages and Literatures with joint appointments in Comparative Media Studies and in Anthropology. In his recent book, The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story<http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=19608&viewby=se…> (2013, Duke University Press), he argues that the practices of "collaborative creativity" that we see in the global success of Japanese animation offer a model for understanding how media and culture are changing in the twenty-first century. He is also the author of Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization<http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=6710&viewby=aut…> (2006, Duke University Press), which was translated into Japanese and published as Nihon no Hip-Hop (2009, NTT Publications). The book explores ethnographically how hip-hop took root and developed in Japan, with a focus on Japanese musicians and their fans, including fieldwork in Tokyo nightclubs and recording studios. Overall, he is interested in "globalization from below," that is, how cultural movements spread transnationally without little push from corporations and governments. Ian also tweets as @iancondry<https://twitter.com/iancondry>. Amy Johnson<http://web.mit.edu/hasts/graduate/johnson.html>, HASTS PhD candidate How do communities of understanding form online? To explore this question, Amy investigates online parody as a form of social critique. She researches the political and linguistic dimensions of digital voice, how social media navigates the complexities of location and jurisdiction in different legal regimes, the relationship between collaborative creativity and sociotechnical affordances, and similar fun topics. Her dissertation focuses on Twitter parody across multiple language environments (English, Arabic, and Japanese). The @HASTS_MIT<https://twitter.com/HASTS_MIT> project is one of her brainchildren. Amy also tweets as @shrapnelofme<https://twitter.com/shrapnelofme>. Wade Roush<https://ksj.mit.edu/about/faculty-staff/wade-roush/>, HASTS alum & Acting Director, Knight Science Journalism at MIT Wade Roush is acting director of the Knight Science Journalism at MIT<http://ksj.mit.edu>, a fellowship program that brings 12 to 15 mid-career science and technology journalists to MIT for nine months of immersion in the Institute's culture of discovery and innovation. He's also a research associate in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society<http://web.mit.edu/sts/>, the Knight program's academic home. Roush was formerly editor-at large at Xconomy, an online news networking covering high-tech innovation in startup hubs across the United States. He joined Xconomy in 2007 as chief correspondent, working from Cambridge, MA, then moved to San Francisco in 2010 to lead Xconomy’s operations in the Bay Area. At Xconomy, Roush created and served as managing editor of Xperience, a section of the website devoted to exploring the impact of technology on consumers. He also wrote more than 280 editions of a weekly column under the running titles World Wide Wade (2007-2013) and VOX: The Voice of Xperience (2013-2014). Before joining Xconomy, Roush was senior editor and San Francisco bureau chief at MIT Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, and served as executive editor of TechnologyReview.com<http://www.technologyreview.com/>. Before that, he was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at the pioneering e-publishing startup NuvoMedia, the company that developed the Rocket eBook. His personal website is www.waderoush.com<http://www.waderoush.com>. Wade also tweets as @wroush<https://twitter.com/wroush>. Lan Li<http://web.mit.edu/hasts/graduate/li.html>, HASTS PhD candidate Lan Li studies the history and practice of integrating biomedicine and Chinese medicine. Her research compares social and political circumstances that contributed to the plurality of medicine in Britain and China during the 19th and 20th centuries. She enjoys exploring the body as a space of constant transformation, examining treatments for terminal illnesses and chronic pain. Lan also tweets as @worldismarble<https://twitter.com/worldismarble>. --- Amy Johnson PhD candidate<http://web.mit.edu/hasts/graduate/johnson.html>, MIT HASTS Berkman Center for Internet & Society<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/ajohnson>, Harvard @shrapnelofme<https://twitter.com/shrapnelofme>

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CFP: Special Issue of First Monday on Technology Non-use
by Eric P. S. Baumer 02 Sep '14

02 Sep '14

Across the numerous disciplines that investigate the relationships between humans and technology, most research focuses on technology use and technology users. User studies, usability metrics, techno-determinism, socio-determinism, user-centered design, participatory design, end user programming, user appropriation, technology adoption, diffusion of innovations, technology and development: such research overwhelmingly focuses on people using technology. We seek to problematize this focus by turning our attention to situations in which a particular individual or group of individuals are unable or choose not to use some specific technology or technological system. Focusing explicitly on non-use can function as a dialectic maneuver, an inversion that provides a novel perspective on, and potentially fuller understanding of, the complex, multifaceted relations among society and technology. We seek to explore these relationships and their broad ramifications rather than simply to transform non-users into users. Studying non-use in its many forms can highlight sociotechnical configurations that may be overlooked due to a singular focus on technology use. To this end, we seek submissions from a broad array of disciplines representing a diverse collection of methodological approaches to the topic of technology non-use. Studying non-use may require novel empirical investigations, methodological approaches, conceptual tools, and theoretical developments. Many and varied technologies may be relevant to consider: digital and analog, modern and ancient, computational and mechanical, popular and obscure, etc. Through this special issue, we also seek to avoid reifying a binary distinction between use and non-use. The point is not to draw ever clearer lines that help us understand what distinguishes non-use(rs) from use(rs). Rather, this special issue aims to explore the complex sociotechnical situations where various forms and degrees of non-use arise. We hope to provide a foundational repository for the topic of non-use through which scholars from many diverse fields can be in conversation with one another. Topics for submissions might include: - case studies of unique or notable instances of non-use - conspicuous or performative non-use - development, ICT4D, and the “digital imperative” - digital divide(s) and/or disenfranchisement - diverse reasons for or causes of non-use (or use): choice, compulsion, structural limitation, etc. - identity management - media and/or technology refusal - methodological innovations for studying non-use - organizational or institutional contexts - partial or situational non-use - social, political, or cultural dimensions of non-use - surveillance avoidance - modifications of existing theories or new theoretical contributions - typologies, taxonomies, categories, or degrees of non-use (and/or use) - any other topics that can be a touchstone for scholars interested in non-use Timeline: - Extended Abstracts Due - September 30 - Feedback from Editors on Abstracts - October 31 - Full Submissions Due - January 15, 2015 - Issue Appears - August 3, 2015 Authors are requested to submit an extended abstract of 400-500 words. Selected authors will be invited to submit a full paper for the special issue and will receive feedback to help craft final submissions. Editors: Eric P. S. Baumer Morgan G. Ames Jed R. Brubaker Jenna Burrell Paul Dourish

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CFP - AAG 2015 - Two Sessions - Critical Data, Critical Technology: In Theory and Praxis
by Jim T 02 Sep '14

02 Sep '14

Hello all, I'd like to encourage you to consider submitting to a pair of sessions being organized for the Chicago 2015 AAG conference by Ryan Burns, Craig Dalton, and myself. The paired sessions will explore critical approaches to data and technology in both theory and praxis. Please see the below call for details and instructions on where and when to send your abstracts. Best, Jim Critical Data, Critical Technology: in Theory In recent years, geographers and other social scientists have begun engaging new data infrastructures, representational technologies, and the resulting analyses as they have emerged in private industry, academic research, and government agencies. Moving beyond simple claims of the “end of theory” (Anderson 2008), it is no longer a question of if anyone thinks ‘big data’ calls for academic analysis. The challenge is now how to approach the complex epistemological and ontological issues raised by emerging data and technology writ large. In turn, the new forms of analyses and sources of data have spurred academic debates over the social and political implications of data analytics and technology (Crampton et al. 2014; Kitchin and Dodge 2011). Recently, researchers have proposed a series of prompts that indicate an incipient critical approach to data studies (boyd and Crawford 2011; Dalton and Thatcher 2014). However, in this field’s nascence, more questions have been raised than answers. For example, geographers and social scientists have yet to address the ways a critical study of data might intersect with and draw from larger critiques of technology. In these paired sessions, we seek to explore and evaluate critical approaches to data, analytics, and new spatial technologies in a common forum. This session focuses on theorizations and conceptual approaches and the complex ontological and epistemological commitments entailed in them. Promising questions include: - How do we situate big data spatially and temporally? In what ways have these contexts impacted its particular development and adoption processes? - What is at stake in data and analytics today? What can/does data change? - Does big data pose challenges to current understandings of ‘participation’ and ‘democracy’? - What relations of power emerge alongside big data? - What formations of surveillance, sousveillance, and privacy are developing? - Who are the subjects in play and how are they subjectified? Under what conditions and relationalities have these actors become subjects of big data? - What are users’ experiences and perceptions of big data ‘on the ground’? How does this impact the ways in which they leverage spatial big data technologies or produce data? Potential considerations include privacy, social networks, activism, and citizen science. - What lines of resonance or distinction may be drawn between the political economies of ‘traditional’ spatial technologies/data and spatial big data? How are we to understand the emergent political economic relations of big data specifically? - What new, alternative conceptions of data and knowledge do these processes open? What new systems of knowledge are produced as technologies seek to quantify and calculate ever-more of everyday life and experience? Critical Data, Critical Technology: in Praxis Big data is currently engaged in diverse sectors, including academic research, civic engagement, urban administration, digital humanitarianism, international development, and public health. These diverse practices show potential for integrating principles and lessons from critical scholarship, but much work needs to be done to build and maintain these connections. How can big data be practiced critically? In what ways is this work already being done? What can practitioners learn from applied studies of technology? How might big data become part of critical practice? How can critical scholars benefit from a greater understanding of existing praxis outside the walls of the academy? Recently, researchers have proposed a series of prompts that indicate an incipient critical approach to data studies (boyd and Crawford 2011; Dalton and Thatcher 2014). However, in this field’s nascence, more questions have been raised than answers. For example, the very definition and utility of ‘small data’ remains contested. In these paired sessions, we seek to explore and evaluate critical approaches to data, analytics, and new spatial technologies in a common forum. In this session, we are interested in how practitioners are mobilizing data, technologies, and analytics in ways that resonate with ‘critical data and technology studies’. We are interested both in existing practices and in potential connections between theory and praxis. Promising questions include: - How is big data being used right now in various sectors, and in what ways do these practices resonate with or challenge some of the ideas from critical data and technology studies? - How can big data be used to challenge social and political relations? For instance, how is big data utilized in activism, protests, social justice movements, and community organizing? Can researchers use data and technologies in their scholar-activism? - How can new approaches challenge the power effects existing relations of data, technology, and knowledge production? - What application areas are particularly amenable to lessons from critical data and technology studies? In what ways can these lessons translate into new practices? - How can scholars of critical data and technology studies distribute the results of our research to practitioners, in ways that affect positive changes? - How can we build and maintain bridges between researchers and practitioners? If interested in participating in either session, please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to Jim Thatcher (jethatch(a)uw.edu) on or before October 1st, 2014. Please indicate in the submission whether you are interested in participating in the Theory or praxis session. Organizers: Jim Thatcher, University of Washington - Tacoma; Craig Dalton, University of Bloomsberg; Ryan Burns - University of Washington

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tripleC: Theorising Digital Labour and Virtual Work - Philosophers of the World Unite!: Special issue
by Christian Fuchs 02 Sep '14

02 Sep '14

Special issue: Philosophers of the World Unite! Theorising Digital Labour and Virtual Work - Definitions, Dimensions and Forms Edited by Marisol Sandoval, Christian Fuchs, Jernej A. Prodnik, Sebastian Sevignani, Thomas Allmer in context of the COST Action Dynamics of Virtual Work http://dynamicsofvirtualwork.com/ tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique 12 (2): 464-801 (pdf and html) http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/issue/current This special issue of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique aims to contribute to building a theoretical framework for the critical analysis of digital labour, virtual work, and related concepts that can initiate further debates, inform empirical studies, and inspire social struggles connected to work and labour in and beyond digital capitalism. The papers collected in this special issue (a) provide systematic definitions of digital labour, (b) analyse its specific dimension, and (c) discuss different forms of digital labour. The papers collected in this special issue theorise digital labour as a multifaceted field characterised by exploitation, alienation, precariousness, power, inequality, ideology, and struggle. These problems of digital labour are however not inherent to digital technology as such but result from its inclusion and application in capitalist relations of production. Theorising digital labour, as labour that produces or makes use of digital technologies, can help to understand its problems, limits, potentials, and contradictions. It can therefore highlight the need for social change and inspire political action. However, the act of freeing digital technology from being an instrument for the domination of labour requires to go beyond just interpreting the world and to engage in social struggles that want to change it. TOC: Introduction: Philosophers of the World Unite! Theorising Digital Labour and Virtual Work—Definitions, Dimensions, and Forms/ Marisol Sandoval, Christian Fuchs, Jernej A. Prodnik, Sebastian Sevignani, Thomas Allmer/ Work and Labour as Metonymy and Metaphor/ Olivier Frayssé/ Digital Workers of the World Unite! A Framework for Critically Theorising and Analysing Digital Labour /Christian Fuchs, Marisol Sandoval / Circuits of Labour: A Labour Theory of the iPhone Era /Jack Linchuan Qiu, Melissa Gregg, Kate Crawford / Concepts of Digital Labour: Schelling's Naturphilosophie /Kevin Michael Mitchell// / Digital Labour and the Use-value of Human Work. On the Importance of Labouring Capacity for understanding Digital Capitalism /Sabine Pfeiffer / The Ideological Reproduction: (Free) Labouring and (Social) Working within Digital Landscapes /Marco Briziarelli / Alienation and Digital Labour—A Depth-Hermeneutic Inquiry into Online Commodification and the Unconscious /Steffen Krüger, Jacob Johanssen / Production Cultures and Differentiations of Digital Labour /Yujie Chen / Digital Labour in Chinese Internet Industries /Bingqing Xia /Will Work For Free: The Biopolitics of Unwaged Digital Labour// /Brian Brown / Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital Era /Brice Nixon / Playing, Gaming, Working and Labouring: Framing the Concepts and Relations /Arwid Lund /

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AoIR: New Association Coordinator
by Kendall, Lori 02 Sep '14

02 Sep '14

I have two happy announcements to make. First, Kelly Boudreau, who has been serving as AoIR's Association Coordinator for the past two years, has accepted a position in Game Studies theory at Brunel University. As AoIR's first Association Coordinator, Kelly has been invaluable in helping us get AoIR more organized and keeping things running. We will miss her, but we're very excited for her in her new position and wish her all the best success! Meanwhile, I am equally happy to announce that we have a new Association Coordinator, Anna Lauren Hoffmann. Anna is currently also our Graduate Student Representative to the AoIR Executive Committee. She has been a member of AoIR for many years, and was part of the local team for IR10 in Milwaukee. She recently received her PhD from the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she also teaches. Please congratulate Kelly and welcome Anna to her new role in AoIR! Lori Kendall President, AoIR

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