Events
MacLeod Lecture: “Advocating for Books, Children and Imagination in a Time of Division: a Conversation with Meg Medina”
Event Start Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2024 - 5:00 pm
Event End Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2024 - 7:00 pm
Location: ESJ 2204 & Zoom
UMD students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends—join us at the 2024 Anne Scott MacLeod Lecture, an INFO signature event. (Registration Required.) Established in 1999 by the University of Maryland College of Information Studies, the MacLeod lecture honors the work and passion of Anne Scott MacLeod, who was a professor in our college and a noted authority on children’s literature. The MacLeod Lecture is devoted to introducing scholarly issues associated with children’s literature to a broad audience.
Description:
The 2024 MacLeod Lecture, “Advocating for Books, Children and Imagination in a Time of Division,” will offer a conversation between the audience, Meg Medina (Newbery Medalist and 2023-34 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature), and Allister Chang (Ward 2 Member on the D.C. State Board of Education and advisory board member of the Library of Congress Literacy Awards) about young people’s literature, libraries, and the freedom to read. The hybrid discussion will be held from 5:00-6:00 PM, followed by a reception & book signing opportunity from 6:00-7:00 PM!
Bio:
Meg Medina is the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Merci Suárez Changes Gears, which was also a 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist, and which was followed by two more acclaimed books about the Suárez family: Merci Suárez Can’t Dance and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool. Her young adult novels include Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, which won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award, and which will be published in 2023 as a graphic novel illustrated by Mel Valentine Vargas; Burn Baby Burn, which was long-listed for the National Book Award; and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. She is also the author of picture books Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez, Jumpstart’s 2020 Read for the Record selection; Mango, Abuela, and Me, illustrated by Angela Dominguez, which was a Pura Belpré Author Award Honor Book; and Tía Isa Wants a Car, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz, which won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award; and the biography for young readers She Persisted: Sonia Sotomayor. The daughter of Cuban immigrants, she grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Allister Chang is the Ward 2 Member on the D.C. State Board of Education and an advisory board member of the Library of Congress Literacy Awards. Allister was previously a Robert Bosch Stiftung Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute, a Visiting Researcher at UNESCO’s Institute for Lifelong Learning, and the Executive Director of Libraries Without Borders. He has been on the International Literacy Association’s “30 Under 30” list and holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.
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.
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Speaker(s): Meg Medina, Allister Chang