iSchool participation in iConference 2025

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2025, which will be held virtually from March 11-14 and physically from March 18-22 in Bloomington, Indiana. The theme of this year's conference is "Living in an AI-gorithmic world."

Virtual Presentations

Wednesday, March 12

Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek and Associate Professor Kate McDowell will co-chair the iSchools Community: Qualitative Research Group discussion at 12:30 p.m. Central Time (CT).

Yuanye Ma, senior research associate at the Discovery Partners Institute, will present "Taking Disagreements into Consideration: Human Annotation Variability in Privacy Policy Analysis" at 12:30 p.m. CT. The paper was coauthored by Tian Wang (PhD Informatics '24), postdoctoral associate at Carnegie Mellon University, Associate Professor Masooda Bashir, Professor Catherine Blake, and PhD student Ryan Wang.

Assistant Professors Emily Maemura and Travis L. Wagner will present "'Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep': A Thematic Analysis of Datahoarding as Digital Curation Practice," at 4:30 p.m. CT.

Professor Catherine Blake will serve as moderator for the session, "AI & Machine Learning IV," at 7:00 p.m. CT.

Thursday, March 13

PhD student William Langston will present "An Analysis of Pre-Professional Attributes for 21st Century Skilled Workforces" at 8:00 a.m. CT. 

MSLIS student Wen-Ning Chen will present "Decoding Cybersecurity for Civic Defense: Exploring Real-World Cybersecurity Metaphors from Digital Frontlines" at 9:00 a.m. CT. 

PhD student Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo will present "A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Software Accessibility Laws, Policies, and Guidelines" at 9:00 a.m. CT.
*Finalist for Best Research Poster Award

PhD student Ebube Uba and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo will present "Governing Knowledge Commons in Information Science" at 1:00 p.m. CT. 

PhD students Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou and Abhinav Choudhry, and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo will present "Public Perceptions and Governance Challenges of Text-to-Video Generative AI Models" at 1:00 CT.

PhD student Ted Ledford will present "Does Artificial Intelligence Harm Labor? Investigating the Limitations of Incident Trackers as Evidence for Policymaking" at 1:00 CT.

Friday, March 14

Assistant Professor Kahyun Choi will present "An Analysis of Poet Demographic and Thematic Diversity in a Poetry Collection for Inclusive AI" at 12:30 p.m. CT.

PhD student Fobazi Ettarh will present "Saving the World One Computer at a Time: The Gendered Expressions and Expectations of Vocational Awe Within Silicon Valley" at 2:00 a.m. CT as part of the virtual doctoral colloquium.

Associate Professor Kyungwon Koh, Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo, Si Chen (PhD '24), postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame, and Informatics PhD student Eugene Malcom Cox will present "Engaging with Information Beyond Vision: Hands-on Approaches to Computational Thinking for Blind and Visually Impaired Learners" at 5:00 p.m. CT.

In-Person Presentations

Tuesday, March 18

Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek and Associate Professor Kate McDowell will co-chair the iSchools Community: Qualitative Research Group discussion at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).

PhD student Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo will present "A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Software Accessibility Laws, Policies, and Guidelines" at 2:00 p.m. ET.
*Finalist for Best Research Poster Award

PhD student William Langston will present "An Analysis of Pre-Professional Attributes for 21st Century Skilled Workforces" at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Wednesday, March 19

Assistant Professor Emily Maemura and PhD student Yingying Han will present "Envisioning Critical Digital Futures for Archives" for Workshop 4: Envisioning Critical Digital Futures for Archives at 9:00 a.m. ET.

Assistant Professor Meicen Sun will participate in an in-person panel for Workshop 3: iSchool Community for Science of Science: Scholarly Communication, Communicating Science, and Public Participation in Science at 10:00 a.m. ET. 

Associate Professor Peter Darch will participate in a panel for Workshop 6: Research Data Management Education Across iSchools at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Teaching Associate Professor Martin Wolske will discuss "Integrating Climate Action into Information Studies: An Open Discussion" at 12:00 p.m. ET.

PhD student Ted Ledford will present "Does Artificial Intelligence Harm Labour? Investigating the Limitations of Incident Trackers as Evidence for Policymaking" at 2:00 p.m. ET.

PhD students Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou and Abhinav Choudhry, and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo will present "'Sora is Incredible and Scary': Public Perceptions and Governance Challenges of Text-to-Video Generative AI Models" at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Informatics PhD student Claudia Grisales will present "State Literacy: Lessons from Social Struggle in the Colombian Amazon" at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Visiting Associate Professor Colin Rhinesmith will moderate the panel discussion, "20 Years of The Journal of Community Informatics: The Past, Present, and Future of Putting People First," at 3:00 p.m. ET. The discussion is part of the iSchools Community Informatics Group Community Event and will feature authors who contributed to the 20th Anniversary Special Issue of The Journal of Community Informatics.

Associate Professor Kyungwon Koh, Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo, Informatics PhD student Eugene Malcom Cox, and Si Chen (PhD ’24), postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame, will present "Engaging with Information Beyond Vision: Hands-on Approaches to Computational Thinking for Blind and Visually Impaired Learners" at 5:00 p.m. ET. 

Thursday, March 20

At the 2025 iConference AIR Workshop: Rethinking Relationship Between Academic and Industry Research on AI: an Interdisciplinary Perspective from iSchools, Associate Professor Yun Huang will present "Advancing AI UX Evaluation at the Intersection of Academia and Industry," and she and Associate Professor Halil Kilicoglu will serve as panelists.

Assistant Professors Emily Maemura and Travis L. Wagner will present "'Everyone Has Their Reasons for Curating the Data They Have Decided to Keep': A Thematic Analysis of Datahoarding as Digital Curation Practice" at 9:00 a.m. ET.

PhD student Andrew Zalot and Professor Emily Knox will present "Libraries' Responses to Book Challenges: Digging into the Data" at 10:00 a.m. ET. 

Teaching Associate Professor Martin Wolske will present "Scientific Research Methods in the Era of AI" at Workshop 11: Scientific Research Methods in the Era of AI at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Friday, March 21

Associate Professor Kate McDowell, Assistant Professor Matthew Turk, Teaching Assistant Professor Jill Naiman, PhD student Xinhui Hu, Informatics PhD student Tali Zacks, and Adjunct Lecturer Christy Moss will present "Visualizing Motivations and Goals for Data Storytelling" at 9:00 a.m. ET.

Informatics PhD student Claudia Grisales will participate in a panel discussion, "Power, Vulnerability, and Accountability in Information Marginalization Research," at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Affiliate Professor Clara Chu, Assistant Professor Travis Wagner, PhD student Vuyokazi Jamieson, and Informatics PhD student Claudia Grisales will present their research at the workshop, "Disrupting the Algorithm: The Slow Information Movement (SIM) and Implications for Slow Information Behavior and Practice (SIBP) Research," at 3:00 p.m. ET. Chu organized the workshop and will serve as moderator.

Assistant Professor Kahyun Choi will present "An Analysis of Poet Demographic and Thematic Diversity in a Poetry Collection for Inclusive AI" at 5:00 p.m. ET. 

Saturday, March 22

Assistant Professor Travis Wagner will present "The affective dimension of archival work: Understanding the thoughts and feelings of archivists who documented the HIV/AIDS epidemic" at 10:00 a.m. ET. 

MSLIS student Wen-Ning Chen will present "Decoding Cybersecurity for Civic Defense: Exploring Real-World Cybersecurity Metaphors from Digital Frontlines" at 12:00 p.m. ET. 

PhD student Guangchun Zheng and Associate Professor Emerita Kate Williams will present "Analysis of the integration of e-commerce and rural lives in China" at 12:00 p.m. ET.

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