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ACT UP:
EVALUATING SOURCES
We need to move away from passive media consumption. You don't have to drink the koolaid. We need to think critically about the resources we are using and citing in our projects. Professors - we need to think critically about the resources we assign our students to read. We all have a social responsibility to share information that is true. This makes us informed cultural producers of information every time we repost, retweet, or share information with our friends, followers, and interweb folx.
To ACT UP means to act in a way that is different from normal. Normal is defined as heteronormative, white, cisgendered, male and christian (just to name a few). Normal means patriarchy and the systemic oppression of marginalized groups.
To ACT UP means to actively engage in dismantling oppressions.
To ACT UP means pushing against dominant narratives, oppressive hierarchies of knowledge production, and academic ivory tower definitions of expertise and scholarship.
ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is also a direct action advocacy group working to help those living with AIDS. While most thik of ACT UP as being active in the 1980's, the work of ACT UP is still being done today. Remember, social justice change take time.
ACT UP: EVALUATING SOURCES ACTIVITIES
DAWN STAHURA
Creator of the ACT UP Evaluation Method
Dawn Stahura is a research librarian, educator, and artist from Salem, Massachusetts currently working as an Associate Librarian at Salem State University. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing and an A.A.S. in Business Management. She earned her M.L.S. from Indiana University in 2009. She is an instructor of Critical Information Literacy and Social Justice at the Library Juice Academy and is the creator of the ACT UP evaluation method which considers the role privilege plays in publishing and access to information.
Dawn teaches a variety of library instruction sessions on critical information literacy as well as conducts research appointments with students and faculty. She is heavily involved in using zines in the classroom to strengthen student scholarship and research skills while making space for students to engage with critical creativity and open pedagogy. Outside of academia, Dawn publishes her own zines, is on the Board of Directors of the Papercut Zine Library in Boston, and leads creative arts workshops at the Salem Public Library for kids and teens.
