Tami Oliphant, PhD, MLIS, BA

Area of Study / Keywords

library and information studies social information practices epistemic injustice public libraries patron-perpetrated sexual harassment

About

I received my PhD from the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario and I am a proud alumna of the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta where I completed my MLIS. My research draws upon intersectional feminist anti-violence theory and practice, theories of justice (particularly epistemic injustice), and other library and information studies (LIS) theory that centres people and their relationships to information institutions such as libraries, librarianship, publishing, and their social information practices. My previous CIHR-funded Women and Heart Disease project with Dr. Tanya Berry and Dr. Colleen Norris and the Patron-perpetrated Sexual Harassment project with Dr. Danielle Allard and Angela Lieu have used intersectional feminist anti-violence methods, frameworks, and lenses that center women’s expertise and knowledge of their own experiences of heart disease, which continues to be perceived as “a man’s disease,” on the one hand, and in the case of library workers, experiences of sexual violence in the workplace. Our most recent SSHRC funded research (2024-2027) advances our findings from the PPSH in libraries project and focuses on policy and PPSH interventions. My long-standing interest in public libraries considers the library as the site where unfolding social relations between library workers and patrons are informed by library context and values and narratives about the place of libraries in the public sphere. The overall objective of my research program is to make visible how the field of LIS, including LIS education and institutions such as libraries, can move toward social, epistemic, and informational justice.

Research

• Human information interaction and social information practices
• Epistemic injustice, knowledge production, experiential knowledge
• LIS education
• Patron-perpetrated sexual harassment, feminized labour, feminism, and gender-based violence
• Public libraries
• Publishing

Teaching

• LIS 505 Introduction to Research
• LIS 543 Human Information Interaction
• LIS 591 Publishing
• LIS 597 Seminar in Advanced Research and Scholarship
• LIS 598 Knowledge Production, Dissemination, and Reception in LIS
• LIS 599 Directed Study

LIS 600 - Capping Exercise

The required capping exercise for the MLIS degree is an ePortfolio representing examples of the student's course work, leadership and innovation potential, communication skills, and involvement in professional life. Normally students are expected to begin developing their ePortfolio during their second semester. The ePortfolio must be completed and submitted during their final term of coursework. It will demonstrate that the student has met the Program Level Learning Outcomes (PLLOs) of the MLIS degree.

Browse more courses taught by Tami Oliphant