This month's spotlight is on Maria Accardi, Coordinator of Library Instruction! Maria was featured in a recent article on faculty innovation, and we chatted with Maria about the intersection of libraries, feminist pedagogy, and social justice. Here's some of what Maria had to say: 

Q: Can you tell us your thoughts on how the Library is a conducive institution for feminist pedagogy to thrive? 

A: I think libraries in general are a good fit for feminist pedagogy; it naturally intersects with some of the concerns and issues we address in teaching information literacy. Firstly, feminist pedagogy values many teaching strategies that prioritize student-centered active learning, which aligns with the best practices and approaches to teaching information literacy. But feminist pedagogy is more than just fostering collaboration, peer-led learning and assessment, and centering student voices. Feminist pedagogy seeks to disrupt and transform the gender dynamics, power relations, and inequalities that are inherent in higher education, which includes both libraries AND scholarly conversations. Whose voices are amplified while others are silenced or erased? Who decides what counts as scholarly? Who makes the decisions that govern what kind of information gets published, disseminated, celebrated? These questions and concerns are central to critical information literacy and feminist pedagogy. It is a natural fit. In short, questioning authority is a stance encouraged by both information literacy instruction and feminist pedagogy. 

Q: Tell us something about your life beyond librarianship.

A: Outside of librarianship, I care about social justice, which isn’t really outside of librarianship, because it intersects with my approach to library work. But when I’m not working at the library, my wife and I run a food justice nonprofit that we co-founded last year. Bringing Justice Home has a two-fold mission: 1) to foster health and wellness for Louisville neighbors experiencing food insecurity by delivering food and household supplies to them, and 2) to engage the community in the work of justice. We have about 30 neighbors (the term we use instead of “client”) enrolled with us who get monthly deliveries of groceries and household necessities that they personally select. We specialize in in helping people who cannot access food pantries or other food assistance resources due to chronic health conditions or transportation barriers. We provide food assistance, but we’re also concerned with food justice. Healthy, culturally appropriate, easily accessible food is a human right, and we want to dismantle the barriers and structural inequalities that prevent people from accessing the food they need and want.