Presented at LILAC 2024.

1. U N P A C K I N G I N F O R M A T I O N H I E R A R C H I E S A N D
C R E A T I N G C O N T E X T - S P E C I F I C R E S E A R C H P L A N S
“What does research mean
to you?”
Salma Abumeeiz, MA, MLIS
Research & Instruction Librarian
UCLA Library
Prepared for
LILAC 2024

2. C O N T E X T
Library instruction activity collaboratively developed and geared towards traditionally
underrepresented learners
Draws from critical librarianship and pedagogy, community archives, and
institutional critique
Utilizes discussion and reflection to encourage learners to develop context-specific
research plans that honour lived experiences and ways of knowing the world that are
produced outside of the academy, while unpacking the dominance of academia and
mainstream institutions within information landscapes

3. I N P R A C T I C E
Discussion
What does research
mean to you?
Consider positive, negative, and neutral
associations with research, and what
factors shape those associations.
Analysis
What assumptions underpin
institutional definitions of
research?
Who or what gets claim to what is considered
“legitimate” and research? How is credibility
shaped by power?
Reflection
How does the academy
define research and
information?
Unpack the ways in which power shapes
information landscapes and resources,
and the ways in which mainstream
institutions contribute to information
hierarchies.
Application
What evidence and information
do you need to answer your
research question?
How can we push back against the uncritical
praise of peer review, all while engage non-
hegemonic information systems and resources?
What might this look like in our own research
practice?
Example slide used during the activity.
Example slide used during the activity.

4. L E A R N I N G O U T C O M E : U N P A C K I N F O R M A T I O N
A U T H O R I T I E S A N D H I E R A R C H I E S
Contextualize the university - and, by extension
the university library - as well as academic
disciplines within broader information
ecosystems, landscapes, and hierarchies.
Trust and follow suspicions: explore the
university’s historic and contemporary role in
extracting, benefiting from, and delegitimizing
knowledge that is produced outside of it
(Reciprocity in Research Records Collaborative,
2021, p. 8).
“[An] extractive or “parasitic” research
approach, where a researcher parachutes
in and uses community resources–
collections, labor, and community
knowledge–to benefit their own research
agenda and career without contributing
resources back to the community ...
Academic researchers often assume
ownership of community knowledge
passed on to them during their research
engagement with the community and relay
such knowledge without attribution. “
RECIPROCITY IN RESEARCHING RECORDS
COLLABORATIVE, 2021

5. L E A R N I N G O U T C O M E : D E - C E N T E R T H E A C A D E M Y
( A N D A C A D E M I C L I B R A R Y )
Consider the ways in which power shapes
authority, and how universities (and, by
extension, university libraries) - as
benefactors and defenders of Western
hegemony (Grande, 2018, p. 48) - enshrine
information hierarchies, and who gets claim
to “legitimate” forms of knowledge.
Resist the uncritical praise of peer review
while acknowledging expectations around
scholarly engagement.
“Rather than set out to
find or discover what
has been lost, or made
illegible to forms of
whiteness, let us begin
with the understanding
that we have always
been here — becoming.”
YUSEF OMOWALE (2018)

6. L E A R N I N G O U T C O M E : D E V E L O P A C O N T E X T -
S P E C I F I C R E S E A R C H P L A N
Embrace ways of knowing the world that do not
necessarily adhere to traditional academic
paradigms.
How will this factor into our evolving research
practices?
How do we push back against the uncritical praise
of peer review, while also acknowledging and
engaging lineages of meaningful scholarship?
Cover of class Community Archives zine, co-created by undergraduate students
enrolled in Cluster 27, during an information literacy activity lead by Sylvia Page.

7. My wonderful colleagues’ work on
positionality, authority, and research
Renee Romero, Sylvia Page, and Simon Lee
I N S P I R A T I O N & C R E D I T
Rethinking oral history and tradition: An
Indigenous perspective.
Mahuika, N. 2019. Oxford University Press.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,
Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of
Plants.
Kimmerer, R. W. 2015. Milkweed Editions.
“Come Correct or Don’t Come at All:” Building
More Equitable Relationships Between Archival
Studies Scholars and Community Archives.”
Reciprocity in Researching Records
Collaborative. 2021.
Undergraduate scholars enrolled in the UCLA
Academic Advancement Program, and the
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows Program
“Liberatory Archives: Towards Belonging and
Believing.” Drake J.M. 2016. On Archivy.

8. Thinking Holistically about
Critical Pedagogy
Though this is a single teaching exercise, it
can be adapted, expanded, and slotted into
specific and more general library instruction
sessions.
This teaching approach should not be
thought of as discrete - if critical pedagogy
and information literacy is at the root of our
instruction, then we cannot approach this
work as fulfilling discrete criteria or a series
of checkboxes.
R E F E L C T I O N S
Reciprocity
This activity is not predicated on imparting
information in one direction - it encourages
scholars to build off of their existing
knowledge and observations, and functions
to validate their experiences and suspicions
about institutions.
Beyond Inclusion
The intent of the featured teaching activity
is not merely to encourage scholars to
utilize and engage diverse source types
(though this outcome is certainly
encouraged).
Instead, it encourages scholars to consider
what it might mean to depart from and lay
bare the structures of power that produce
the academy and institutions as information
centers.

9. R E F E R E N C E S / F U R T H E R R E A D I N G
Chatterjee, P., & Maira, S. (2014). The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent. University of Minnesota Press.
https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctt6wr7wn
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed / Paulo Freire; translated by Myra Bergman Ramos; with an introduction by Donaldo Macedo. (30th anniversary ed.).
New York: Continuum.
Grande, S. (2018). Refusing the university. In Toward What Justice? (pp. 47-65). Routledge.
Hudson, D. (2017). “On ‘Diversity’ as Anti-Racism in Library and Information Studies: A Critique.” Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies 1, no. 1
Lopez, C., Romero, R., & Page, S.. (2022, November 3). Authority, bias, and the self in research: fostering interdisciplinary conversations in library spaces
[Conference presentation]. Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium, Virtual Event, University of Arizona.
Grande, S. & McCarty, T. L. (2018). Indigenous elsewheres: refusal and re-membering in education research, policy, and praxis. International Journal of
Qualitative Studies in Education, 31(3), 165–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2017.1401144.
JJ Ghaddar, “The Spectre in the Archive: Truth, Reconciliation, and Indigenous Archival Memory,” Archivaria 82 (Fall 2016): 3-26.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/687080
Kelley, Robin D.G. (2016). Black Study, Black Struggle. Boston Review (Cambridge, Mass.: 1982), 41(2). https://bostonreview.net/forum/robin-kelley-black-
struggle-campus-protest/.
Kim, Eunsong. “Remain | Un | Conquered.” Art Practical, 2020. https://wayback.archive-
it.org/15633/20210121021724/https://www.artpractical.com/feature/remain-un-conquered/.
Macharia, Keguro. “On Being Area-Studied: A Litany of Complaint.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 22, no. 2 (2016): 183–89.
https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-3428711.

10. Q U E S T I O N S ?
Thank you!
Salma Abumeeiz, MA, MLIS
Research & Instruction Librarian
UCLA Library E: salmabumeeiz@library.ucla.edu