About

bio

I’m (she/her) a librarian, facilitator, and educator working towards fulfilling the promise of social justice in libraries and higher education. I am an editor at up//root: a We Here publication.

I co-edited Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies Through Critical Race Theory with Jorge López-McKnight, available in print and open access by MIT Press. My focus is on building community among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in libraries and beyond.

I hold a Master’s in Library and Information Science and a Master’s in Public Administration, both from the University of Washington in Seattle. I have a BA in English from Barnard College.

I tweet at @sofiayleung. Check out my CV here.

Selected Presentations

Brown, J., Ettarh, F. (Sep 2022). Discussing How We Address the Ways Our Institutions are Deeply Rooted in Past & Current Injustices. Panel for SPARC Knowledge Equity Discussion Series.

(Jul 2022). Keynote for The Freedom to Read Foundation Symposium. Virtual.

(Mar 2022). Keynote for the Library Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Virtual.

(Oct 2021). Keynote for the Academic Library Association of Ohio Annual Conference. Virtual.

(Oct 2021). Keynote for the Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference. Virtual.

Pho, A. (Oct 2021). This is how the work gets done: dismantling everyday racism in libraries. Invited presentation for the Pacific Library Partnership Future of Libraries Conference. Virtual.

(Sep 2021). Introduction to Critical Race Theory in Library and Information Studies. We Here Community School Webinar.

(Nov 2020). Closing Keynote for the CORE Virtual Forum.

(Nov 2020). Knowledge Justice. Invited presentation for Ho’ekele Na’auao Symposium. Virtual.

(Oct 2020). The “Ordinary” Existence of Racism & White Supremacy. Invited presentation for the Pennsylvania Library Association Conference. Virtual.

(Sept 2020). Knowledge Justice. Keynote. Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium, University of Arizona.

Gabriel, J.R., Leftwich, A.M., Williams, J. (Jul 2020). BIPOC Solidarity in Traditionally White Spaces. Invited panelist. Advancing Racial Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace Symposium, Denver Public Library.

(May 2020). Disrupting White Supremacy Through BIPOC Solidarity. Invited webinar (reprise). California Chapter of the Chinese American Librarians Association

Twiss, T. (Jun 2019). Hate Speech and Libraries. Invited presenter by the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table’s International Responsibilities Task Force at the ALA Annual Conference: Washington, D.C.

Brown, J., Ferretti, J., Mendez-Brady. (Apr 2019). Moving Beyond Race 101: Speculative Futuring for Equity. Presented at the ACRL 2019 Conference: Cleveland, OH.

Brown, J., Pho, A. (Nov 2018). Deconstruct to Reconstruct: Challenging Critical Librarianship. Presented at the Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium: Tucson, AZ.

Brown, J., Ferretti, J., Mendez-Brady, M. (Sep 2018). We Here: Community Building as Self Care. Presented at the 3rd National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color: Albuquerque, NM.

Ferretti, J. (Jul 2018). Writing Ourselves into Our Future: Dismantling & Envisioning Alternative Models of Library Leadership. Presented at the Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium: Boston, MA.

Arellano Douglas, V., Brown, J., Gadsby, J. (Jul 2018). Deconstructing Service: Intersections of Identity. Presented at the Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium: Boston, MA.

Brown, J., Lopez-McKnight, J., (Jun 2018). Comics, Hip Hop, and Information Literacy: Critical Pedagogies for Student Empowerment. Presented at the International Conference on Learning: Athens, Greece.

Baldwin-DiMeo, C., Quiñon, S. (Sep 2017). Critical Pedagogy and Information Literacy Panel. Invited panelist at the Fall Program for the New England Library Instruction Group, ACRL New England Chapter.

Koester, A., Mguni, B., Neptune, M., Pho, A. (Jun 2017). You can’t stay neutral on a moving train: Making critical librarianship tangible through library programs and exhibits. Presented as an Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) sponsored program at the ALA Annual Conference: Chicago, IL.

Natarajan, V., Tewell, E. (May 2017). Critical Library Practice and Higher Education: Locating Spaces of Agency and Resistance. Presented at the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians Conference: Toronto, Canada.

Brown, J., Cline, N., Lopez-McKnight, J. (May 2017). The Art of the Introduction: Encapsulating Identity, Agency, and Culture in Library Outreach & Engagement. Presented at the Identity, Agency, and Culture in Academic Libraries Conference: Los Angeles, CA.

Arellano-Douglas, V., Gadsby, J., Pashia, A., Tewell, E. (May 2017). Invisible barriers and subversive practice: Critical librarianship in higher education. Presented at the Identity, Agency, and Culture in Academic Libraries Conference: Los Angeles, CA.

Branstiter, C. (May 2017). Bridging the Gap: A Social Justice Approach to Campus Outreach. Presented at the LOEX Conference: Lexington, KY.

Gamble, S., Orozco, R., Younger, K. (Mar 2017). Finding the Gaps: Building Powerful Partnerships Across Campus. Presented at the ACRL 2017 Conference: Baltimore, MD.

Ettarh, F., Lopez-McKnight, J., McCaskill, R. (Jan 2017). An Open Conversation on Critical Pedagogy & Critical Information Literacy. Presented at the Association of Research Libraries 13th Annual Leadership Symposium: Atlanta, GA.

Publications

Leung, S. (2022). The Futility of Information Literacy & EDI: Toward What? College & Research Libraries, 85 (5), 751-764. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.83.5.751

Leung, S. Y., López-McKnight, J. R. (Eds.) (2021). Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library & Information Studies Through Critical Race Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Leung, S. Y., López-McKnight, J. R. (2020). Dreaming Revolutionary Futures: Critical Race’s Centrality to Ending White Supremacy. Communications in Information Literacy,14(1), 12-26. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2020.14.1.2

Leung, S., Baildon, M., Albaugh, N. (2019). Applying Concepts of Algorithmic Justice to Reference, Instruction, and Collections Work [White paper]. Cambridge, MA: MIT Libraries.

Leung, S., Brown, J., Ferretti, J., Mendez-Brady, M. (2018). We Here: Speaking Our Truth. Library Trends.

Leung, S., Brown, J. (2018). Authenticity vs. Professionalism: Being True to Ourselves at Work. In Chou, R., Pho, A. (Eds.), Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press.

Leung, S. (2018). Letter to a New Librarian of Color. In Neely, T., López-McKnight, J.R. (Eds.), In Our Own Voices, Redux: Contemporary Diverse Faces of Librarianship Today. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littefield Publishing Group.

Leung, S., Gamble, S. (2017). Who’s the boss?: Getting students to understand authority in an academic context. In Pun, R., Houlihan, M. (Eds.), The First-Year Experience Cookbook. Chicago, Illinois: ACRL Publications.

Leung, S. (2016, October 24). ARL Fall Forum 2016 Explores How to Create Libraries That Facilitate Social Justice [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.arl.org/events/upcoming-events/arl-fall-forum-2016/overview-of-forum-by-sofia-leung.

Leung, S., Alawadhi, S., Aldama, A., Chourabi, H., Gil-Garcia, J.R., Mellouli, S., Nam, T., Pardo, T., Scholl, H.J., & Walker, S. (2012). Building Understanding of Smart City Initiatives. Proceedings of the International Federation for Information Processing E-government Conference.