Interactive Presentation on Critical Race Theory in Librarianship

Join the ACRL's Distance and Online Learning Section (DOLS) Anti-racism and EDI Committee to learn about Critical Race Theory from an international perspective! 

Event Description

Theory meets practice: Dr. Maha Kumaran will begin this session with a brief presentation of her work, focusing on the freely available book chapter "Critical Race Theory" from Varieties of qualitative research methods: Selected contextual perspectives, before inviting questions.

Dr. Kumaran defended her dissertation in the summer of 2023, using a combination of critical race theory and appreciative inquiry in her thesis entitled Canadian Academic Library Leadership (CALL): The State of Equity. 

While working on her thesis, she published a book chapter on critical race theory (CRT), which includes ideas for engagement activities that could be used to analyze the library instruction / information literacy content or examine EDI policies and statements at your libraries. 

Based on her theoretical knowledge and use of CRT in her work and her lived experience as an immigrant librarian, Kumaran will bring multiple perspectives into the session that connect to the tenets of CRT and go beyond.  

Please register in advance via Zoom to attend this Interactive Presentation.

Note: A recording of this session will only be shared to those who register. It will not be shared via YouTube. To learn more about Dr. Kumaran's work, please register. 

Event Details

Monday, April 15, 2024 at 2 PM Eastern, 1:00 PM Central, 12:00 PM Mountain, 11:00 AM Pacific

Zoom URL 

Meeting ID: 918 9039 4346

Passcode: 274624

Featured Presenter

Maha Kumaran is the Acting Assistant Dean for Collections and Discovery (January 2024 – June 2024) and is also the liaison for the College of Education, University of Saskatchewan. Her research interests, expertise, and activities revolve around marginalized populations who work at and use academic libraries.

Maha is currently one of the two co-chairs of the Usask Library's Library Educators Action Forum (LEAF) which is a forum for all librarians and library educators. Maha and her co-chair Joel organize monthly presentations offered by various experts at the Library, campus, Canada-wide, and also from the United States. Over the last two years, LEAF has focused on programs or topics such as being an educator, student well-being, active learning, hybrid teaching environments, biases in education, assessing inclusively (especially from an Indigenous perspective) and using rubrics for assessment. All members of LEAF are engaged in sharing, practicing, and learning various instructional strategies, teaching methodologies, and pedagogies.

Maha identified a gap in "community building" for BPOC librarians in Canada and initiated the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) Network in 2012. This network continues to engage with early and mid-career BPOC Canadian librarians through mentorship programs, scholarship initiatives, and demographic projects.

Featured Work

Kumaran, M. (2023). Critical race theory. In J. M .Okoko, S. Tunison, & K. D. Walker (Eds.), Varieties of qualitative research methods: Selected contextual perspectives (pp. 97-102). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-04394-9_16