The Library and Information Science Department is pleased to welcome the following three scholars who will join the faculty: Denise Agosto and Alex Jiahong Lu (starting Fall, 2024), Avriel Epps (starting Fall 2025 after a one-year post-doctoral fellowship).
Visiting Professor in the Library and Information Science Department (with appointment to tenured professor pending review) Denise E. Agosto
Denise E. Agosto (she/hers) is Professor in the College of Computing & Informatics at Drexel University, where she serves as Director of the Masters of Science in Information, Library & Information Science. She studies young people’s use of information and information technologies, the role of social context in shaping youths’ information practices, and public library services. She is widely published in these areas and is the recipient of numerous research and teaching awards. Most recently, she received a 2022-2023 Fulbright Scholar Award, for which she spent six months at the School of Information Science, Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, conducting research into college students' online information sharing and their experiences with misinformation.
Tenure Track Assistant Professor in the Library and Information Science Department Avriel Epps
Avriel Epps (she/her/hers or they/them/theirs) earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; a master’s degree in data science in 2022 from the Harvard Griffin Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts; and a Ph.D. in Human Development, Learning, and Teaching from Harvard University in 2024. Epps researches how adolescent racial and gender identity development is influenced by bias in digital products. The title is of her dissertation is "Algorithms, Abolition, and African American Youth Development: Theorizing and Examining the Impacts of Artificial Intelligence Systems on Black Adolescents in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter." She will participate in 2024/2025 as a Civic Science post-doctoral fellow before joining LIS in Fall of 2025.
Tenure Track Assistant Professor in the Library and Information Science Department Alex Jiahong Lu
Alex Jiahong Lu (he/they) is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan's School of Information and holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) and a Master of Science in Information (MSI) from the same university. His areas of interest are surveillance and marginalization, community-based participatory research, and critical design and participatory speculative design. His research seeks to center community voices in technology design, policy-making, and research processes. The title of his dissertation is “Safety Visions: Reimagining Safety and Surveillance with Eastside Detroiters.”
Associate Professor and Chair of the LIS Department Rebecca Reynolds said, “This year our department’s hiring priorities centered on three areas and we are so excited to welcome Denise Agosto as our LIS hire, Avriel Epps as our Fair and Responsible Data Science (FRDS) hire, and Alex Jiahong Lu as our Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) hire. Our department is so fortunate to have attracted such talented, innovative scholars whose research shares important synergies in their focus on information and communication technology uses and practices among intersectionally diverse young people and communities. All three conduct engaged, culturally responsive and sensitive research, drawing on varying (but complementary) theories, research methods, designs and paradigmatic approaches. While we had not explicitly sought these inter-connections, we are excited about the synchronicity. We can’t wait to warmly welcome our new colleagues to campus, and for our students, especially, to benefit soon from their arrival. We are grateful to the SC&I Dean's office, and all LIS faculty for their active engagement and support in this important search.”
Learn more about the Library and Information Science Department at the Rutgers School of Communication on the website.
