Jump to Main Content
Jump to Top Navigation
Jump to Page Navigation
Jump to Footer Navigation
UW COVID-19 Facts & Resources iSchool Student FAQ
University of Washington

University of Washington Information School

  • Programs
    • Informatics Undergraduate major and minor
    • MLIS Master of Library and Information Science
    • MSIM Master of Science in Information Management
    • Ph.D. Doctorate in Information Science
    • More Options Professional development and continuing education
  • Research
    • Research Updates The latest news from our faculty and research staff
    • Research Areas Core topics of iSchool research
    • Research Groups Hubs for innovative scholarship and research
    • Grants & Awards Recent funding for iSchool research projects
  • News & Events
    • News The latest stories from our community
    • Events What's happening on campus and beyond
    • Podcast Documents That Changed the World, with Joe Janes
  • People
    • Directory Find iSchool faculty, staff and students
    • Alumni Find out what our alumni are doing now
    • Advising & Support Find help from our team of student advisors
    • Faculty Affairs Making the iSchool a joyful professional community for faculty
    • Diversity We are committed to building an inclusive community
  • The School
    • About Us The iSchool is home to innovators and leaders who make information work
    • Employers & Partners How to collaborate with faculty and students
    • Capstone Students work with organizations to solve information problems
    • Support the iSchool Every gift makes a difference to students
    • iSchool IT Find help and answers to technology questions
Customize Your
Experience

Would you like to see information for Future Students, Current Students, Faculty & Staff, or Everyone?

Audience Tools
Search Menu
banner image

Faculty Affairs

  • Directory
  • Alumni
  • Advising & Support
  • Faculty Affairs
    • Diversity & Community
    • Funding for Faculty Work
    • Teaching Resources
    • Ed Mignon Lecture
    • Spencer G. Shaw Lecture
  • Diversity

Resources:

  • COVID-19 Response & FAQ
  • Advising & Support
  • Capstone Projects
  • Upcoming Info Sessions
  • Videos: Alumni at Work
  • Admissions mailing list

Ed Mignon Distinguished Lecture

  1. People
  2. Faculty Affairs
  3. Ed Mignon Lecture

The Ed Mignon Distinguished Lecture in Information Science is named for an alumnus and former faculty member of what is now the iSchool. He passed away in January 2012.  

The lectureship is made possible by a gift from Molly Mignon, wife of Ed Mignon. The purpose of the fund is to provide support for an annual lecture by a distinguished speaker on a topic of interest in the field of information science. Speaker topics may be related to current events, policies, controversies, or issues in the information and technology fields. Our goal is to inspire original thinking and foster creativity among students, faculty and researchers at the Information School.

2021 lecturer

Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom
Writer, sociologist, and associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University
Dr. Cottom is the author of Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy and Thick: And Other Essays.  Her work has been recognized nationally and internationally for the urgency and depth of her incisive critical analysis of technology, higher education, class, race and gender. Her most recent work, Thick: and Other Essays, was a finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library’s Literary Prize, as well as the National Book Award. The collection has been described as “essential,” and the Chicago Tribune calls Dr. Cottom “the author you need to read now.” Dorothy Roberts compares reading it to “holding a mirror to your soul and to that of America.”

Dr. Cottom was originally scheduled to deliver the 2020 lecture, but her visit was postponed due to COVID-19.

Past lecturers

2019: Siva Vaidhyanathan
Robertson Professor of Media Studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship, University of Virginia
"Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects People and Undermines Democracy "
Vaidhyanathan writes that if you wanted to build a machine that would distribute propaganda to millions of people, distract them from important issues, energize hatred and bigotry, erode social trust, undermine respectable journalism, foster doubts about science, and engage in massive surveillance all at once, you would make something a lot like Facebook. Facebook’s leaders believed that good intentions were enough, he says, and that blind faith in technology could generate a better world. Vaidhyanathan's books include “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy;” “Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction;” and “The Googlization of Everything — and Why We Should Worry.”

2018: Nadine Strossen
John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, New York Law School
"HATE: Why We Should Resist it with Free Speech, Not Censorship"
Strossen has written, taught, and advocated extensively in the areas of constitutional law and civil liberties, including through frequent media interviews. From 1991 through 2008, she served as President of the American Civil Liberties Union, the first woman to head the nation’s largest and oldest civil liberties organization. In her book, “Hate: Why We should Resist it with Free Speech, Not Censorship.” she argues that our political and campus discourse are increasingly filled with charges and counter-charges of “hate speech” to stigmatize and suppress seemingly any speech whose ideas are viewed as hated and hateful.

2017: John Palfrey
​Head of School, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
"Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever"
In his book, “BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google,” Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. Libraries play a crucial role in making these skills and information available — and yet are at risk. In order to thrive in our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible — by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online, while continuing to play the vital role as public spaces in our democracy that they have for hundreds of years.

2016: Paul Duguid
​Adjunct Professor, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley
"Reassessing the Social"
Over the last decade, our “age of information” became increasingly socialized as “social media” came to form a central part of how we both account for the ways the age has developed and predict where it might take us. This talk put this social life of information in a larger, historical context by drawing comparisons with earlier views of information, its “age,” and its sociability. Paul Duguid is coauthor of "The Social Life of Information." Recent work encompasses the history of the concept of “information” and what things like trademarks might tell us about ways information functions in the marketplace.

2015: Luciana Duranti
​Chair and Professor, School of Library, Archives, and Information Studies, University of British Columbia
"The concept of place in the digital world: Does the 'where' of preservation still matter? Why? To whom?"
Is it true that, in the digital environment, the where of preservation is irrelevant and the long cherished concept of place, which, since Roman law, has constantly accompanied the idea of perpetual documentary memory, is no longer the pillar supporting trusted repositories like archives and libraries? This lecture presented the concept of place of preservation as it developed and has been interpreted from Roman law to our times, and discussed its relevance to digital preservation by addressing issues of trust, evidence, rights, security, memory, and identity.  

2014: Tony Hey
Vice President, Microsoft Research Connections
"Beyond Open Access to Open Data"
Hey discussed the opportunity and obligation iSchools and their graduates have to create new tools to help scientists build, manage, and preserve the necessary data infrastructure. At the time of the lecture, Hey was Vice President of Microsoft Research Connections and was responsible for the worldwide external research and technical computing strategy across Microsoft Corporation. He led the company's efforts to build long-term public-private partnerships with global scientific and engineering communities, spanning broad reach and in-depth engagements with academic and research institutions, related government agencies and industry partners. Hey is a fellow of the U.K.'s Royal Academy of Engineering, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

2013: Carole Palmer
Director, Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship; Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
"Data Curation and the Reuse Value of Digital Research Data:  Meeting the Aims of Multiple Disciplines and Stakeholders"
Digital research data are now widely recognized as valuable assets — research resources with tremendous potential for reuse in new and innovative ways. However, realizing this potential will require ready access to extensive bodies of curated data. Advances in the management of digital data are proceeding apace, but curation services in research libraries and data centers need to extend beyond storage, archiving, and preservation to identification of high-value data and provision of data resources that are fit for new purposes. Palmer presented key findings on curatorial approaches needed to support data producers vs. consumers, as well as the aims of research institutions.   

Resources:

  • COVID-19 Response & FAQ
  • Advising & Support
  • Capstone Projects
  • Upcoming Info Sessions
  • Videos: Alumni at Work
  • Admissions mailing list

News

Alexis Hiniker

How do Alexa and Siri affect kids? iSchool's Hiniker investigates

Friday, January 8, 2021
Many families have unwittingly been taking part in a huge social experiment. They’ve invited conversational agents such as Siri and Alexa into their homes, but how do these new technologies affect children’s social development? The...
Read more

Researchers work to bridge digital divide in Tacoma

Tuesday, January 5, 2021
The coronavirus pandemic has shown how internet access has become a crucial lifeline for many. It has also highlighted a key facet of Jason Young’s research at the Information School: the gap between those who have broadband internet...
Read more

Events

Jan 26
 
2:00-4:00PM

Dissertation Proposal Defense - Jason Portenoy

Online
Jan 28
 
2:00-4:00PM

Resume Review Day

Online
Feb 1
 
3:00-4:00PM

Everett Public Library Information Session

Online
Feb 1
 
4:30-5:30PM

Washington Library Association (WLA) Information Session

Online
iSchools.org
  • Jobs
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Logo & Brand Guidelines
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Make a Gift
iSchools.org
© 2021 UW Information School
Box 352840 - Mary Gates Hall, Ste. 370
Seattle, WA 98195-2840
United States of America
206-685-9937
Close menu
Toolkit
Customize
Your Experience
Change audience type

Search:

All People
  • Programs
    • Informatics
    • MLIS
    • MSIM
    • Ph.D.
    • More Options
  • Research
    • Research Updates
    • Research Areas
    • Research Groups
    • Grants & Awards
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
    • Podcast
  • People
    • Directory
    • Alumni
    • Advising & Support
    • Faculty Affairs
    • Diversity
  • The School
    • About Us
    • Employers & Partners
    • Capstone
    • Support the iSchool
    • iSchool IT

toolkit

  • COVID-19 Response Site
  • iSchool Intranet
  • MyUW
  • Outlook Web App
  • Office 365
  • Workday
  • UW Time Schedule
  • UW Academic Calendar
  • iSchool Slack
  • Knowledge Base
  • Activity Insight
  • Azure Dev Tools
  • Online Learning Help
  • Zoom
  • Streaming Support
  • Canvas LMS
  • Qualtrics
  • Emergency Info
  • Site Login
Loading Results...Loading search results, please wait.

Highlights

Full Results

See Full Results
See Full Directory

Customize Your Experience

  • Future Students
  • Current Students
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Everyone