Critical Journeys: How 14 Librarians Came to Embrace Critical Practice

A growing number of librarians are engaged with critical theories such as critical pedagogy, feminist theory, queer theory, critical race theory, or post-colonialism. Because librarians have backgrounds in all disciplines and inhabit a uniquely central space in our culture, they are combining these theories in unique ways. By remixing ideas from Foucault, Freire, hooks, and Habermas, new and creative practices are emerging. In this book you will hear the story of fourteen librarians and how they each came to be engaged in a critical practice. In each chapter a different academic or public librarian will be interviewed. Interviewees will include instruction librarians, catalogers, archivists, administrators, and library school professors. Discover what these librarians find inspirational about critical theories, how they work to create a critical practice in their professional lives, and how they see critical practices growing in our profession. Hear these librarians reflect on their own critical practices of librarianship and perhaps become inspired to begin a critical journey of your own.