Events
CAFe Speaker Series: “Metadata as a Site for Critical Inquiry” (Canceled)
Event Start Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Event End Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2024
This event has been canceled. Sorry for the inconvenience! We hope we’ll see you at the next CAFe Speaker Series event on 4/10!
Description:
As a key element of digital infrastructures that shapes the use and reuse of digital information objects, metadata is a rich source for critique. In this talk, Dr. Karen M. Wickett (University of Illinois) positions metadata as a focal area for critical inquiry on information systems and characterizes the landscape of research that examines the social and cultural impacts of metadata. Critical information studies needs methods that bridge between analysis of the social impacts of information systems and examination of the technical realities of those systems. Critical data modeling bridges that gap by using data modeling and systems analysis techniques to create critical readings of information systems and artifacts such as metadata. Future directions for critical metadata research will need theoretical frameworks that include ethical principles as guideposts. She will conclude the presentation with an argument for relationality and radical empathy as core metadata principles.
Bio:
Karen M. Wickett is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois. Her research is on critical approaches to information organization, metadata, knowledge organization, and data modeling. She is most interested in the analysis of common concepts and data models in information systems. Examining the assumptions and models behind these systems and artifacts can reveal bias and help us understand the role of information systems in societal oppression. She was previously on the faculty of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where she taught courses and conducted research on information modeling and conceptual modeling in data curation.
Additional Information:
Please contact ischoolevents@umd.edu at least one week prior to the event to request disability accommodations. In all situations, a good faith effort (up until the time of the event) will be made to provide accommodations.
Speaker(s): Karen M. Wickett