About
Rooted in a framework of reproductive justice, Information, Power, and Reproductive Health exposes power’s central role in how reproductive health information is created, controlled, withheld, and shared. How do deeply entrenched ideologies about which bodies are deserving or undeserving of reproductive care impact the information landscape? Which facets of reproductive life are worthy of research? How do legislative, bureaucratic, medical-scientific, economic, and familial systems and structures shape reproductive health information, and our access to it? And how are libraries and other institutions or organizations responding in this critical era of reproductive crisis?
This edited collection demonstrates that information production and consumption is indeed a social act, tracing the structural and ideological forces in the reproductive health landscape and locating transgressive sites of information sharing that speak back to power. Including 20 chapters from established and emerging writers in library and information studies (LIS) and beyond, this is an essential volume for librarians, healthcare practitioners, academics, advocates, and activists committed to reproductive justice.
Meet the Editors
Gina Schlesselman-Tarango
Gina Schlesselman-Tarango (she/her) is Associate Professor and Science Librarian at Grinnell College. She is an interdisciplinary scholar and educator who writes about critical information literacy in academic libraries and the gender and racial dynamics at play in information work more broadly. Her work has appeared in Exploring Equitable and Inclusive Pedagogies: Creating Space for All Learners, Critical Library Pedagogy Handbook, Communications in Information Literacy, College & Research Libraries, Library Trends, and Keywords in (Critical) Library Information Science/Studies (forthcoming). Most notably, she authored the widely cited “The Legacy of Lady Bountiful: White Women in the Library” (2016) and edited Topographies of Whiteness: Mapping Whiteness in Library and Information Science (2017).
Visit Gina’s professional website to learn more.
Renée Ann Rau
Renée A. Rau is a Health Sciences Librarian at Norris Medical Library at University of Southern California (USC). Before earning her Master’s in Library and Information Science from San José State University in 2020, she studied 20th century United States history with an emphasis on women and gender history. The intersection of information, language, and power particularly in relation to women and empire formed much of her historical study and is applicable to her current work as a liaison librarian to USC’s Keck School of Medicine. This humanities background adds a different perspective to her work with current and future healthcare professionals. Interest in diversifying academic and health science librarianship as well as serving historically marginalized populations has encouraged her to develop resources that increase health practitioners’ understanding of cultural humility, equity, diversity, and inclusion within their respective fields. Her current research interests include: Graphic Medicine and Health Humanities; and how librarians can help support, expand, and improve culturally competent healthcare information for the healthcare industry as well as academic and local communities.
When she’s not working you can find her reading novels, at local craft breweries and coffee shops, prepping for fantasy football, going to metalcore concerts, and cuddling with her cats Dante (à la Dante’s Inferno) and Franz (à la Franz Liszt).
Alanna Aiko Moore
Alanna Aiko Moore, MLIS (she/her), is the Head of Community Engagement and Inclusion and Ethnic Studies Librarian at UC San Diego. Prior to this role, she served for 15 years as the Sociology and Critical Gender Studies Librarian. Alanna’s research interests include race and ethnicity in librarianship, emotional labor, queer parenting, and mentoring for people of color. She is the current Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association and has previously served as a Visiting Program Officer for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Alanna is also an alum of the ARL Leadership and Career Development Program and the Spectrum Scholar Program of the American Library Association. She holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology/Anthropology with a minor in Gender Studies and a Master’s in Library Science.