Webinar: Human Rights & Banned Books Week: Internationalizing Banned Books Week with Amnesty International Programming with Ed McKennon and Ash Gohr

Human Rights & Banned Books Week: Internationalizing Banned Books Week with Amnesty International Programming with Ed McKennon and Ash Gohr 

Date: September 12, 2024

Time: 1 pm

Registration Link: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TxuObRsDTYC-hiKtY55bRQ

Program Description:  

Attendees will learn strategies for broadening Banned Books Week (BBW) programming through the inclusion of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) BBW materials and focus cases. Program will include a presentation of new programming materials and related strategies for inclusion in libraries at all levels (school, public, academic), a discussion of how the human rights framework and international issues of censorship can deepen BBW programming and, perhaps, deflect criticism, and a brief review of the current Amnesty International Banned Books Week focus cases. Learn about featured authors and resources for Amnesty International’s Banned Books Week 2024.

Presenter Bios: 

Ed McKennon has served as an academic librarian for over 20 years. He has collaboratively organized Banned Books Week activities with Amnesty International student groups alongside library faculty and staff at Arizona State University beginning 2002 and Glendale Community College since 2008. Ed was a catalyst in re-starting the annual Amnesty International USA Banned Books campaign in 2018 and has served as a volunteer on the AIUSA Banned Books Week Working Group ever since. He has presented about the relationship between Banned Books Week library campaigns and international human rights action via poster sessions at ACRL and AIUSA Annual General Meetings and contributed to related IFLA blogs. Apart from his work related to Banned Books Week, Ed is library faculty at Glendale Community College where he previously focused on web development and e-resources management and currently leads collection development efforts. Additionally, he contributes to instruction, reference, and diversity, equity, and inclusion work at the library.  

Michelle Ashley Gohr (they/she) is a Youth Services librarian with a focus on pre-teens at Prescott Valley Public Library and formerly a First Year Experience Librarian with Arizona State University where they taught information literacy to first year students and provided research assistance to students and faculty in women and gender studies, social justice/human rights, and other subject areas. They have served as a volunteer librarian on the Amnesty International USA Banned Books Week Working Group since summer 2022. Their research primarily focuses on young adult literacy, censorship, and critical pedagogies.