The School of Information Sciences’ (SIS) Inclusive Excellence Committee is hosting the third Beyond Barriers: Conversations on Equity in Information Conference from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 2, 2026.

We invite SIS graduate students and 2025 alumni to submit projects for presentation at the school’s annual virtual Beyond Barriers Conference. This year’s theme is “Centering Social Justice in L/IS.” This call for projects highlights student work that centers equity, inclusion, and justice as foundational—not peripheral—elements of library and information practice.

Libraries and information institutions play a critical role in shaping access, representation, and community power. This conference seeks to elevate student projects that critically engage with these responsibilities and imagine transformative futures for the field.

This call is open to:

• Current graduate students in the School of Information Sciences
• 2025 SIS graduates whose projects were completed as part of graduate coursework or research
• Individual or group projects (clearly identify all contributors) are acceptable

Project Scope & Themes

We welcome projects at any stage of development—conceptual, in-progress, or completed—that engage with social justice in L/IS contexts. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

• Community-centered librarianship and participatory design
• Information access, censorship, and intellectual freedom
• Critical cataloging, metadata justice, and classification bias
• Archives, memory work, and reparative description
• Indigenous, Black, and marginalized knowledge systems
• Accessibility, disability justice, and inclusive design
• Data ethics, surveillance, and privacy
• Prison libraries, abolitionist frameworks, and carceral systems
• Health, legal, or civic information justice
• Digital divides and technology equity

Since this is a virtual conference, projects must be presented with presentation software (PowerPoint, Canva, etc.). Presenters will have 15-20 minutes to present their projects.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should include:

• Project title
• Project description (200 words or less)
• Conference relevance statement (75-150 words) describing how the project relates to the conference theme

Review Criteria

Projects will be reviewed based on:

• Alignment with the conference theme
• Engagement with social justice principles
• Clarity and thoughtfulness of the project description
• Potential impact on L/IS practice, communities, or scholarship

Important Notes

• Project submission forms must be completed and submitted by 5 p.m. ET on Friday, March 13, 2026. The submission form is available below.
• Students and alumni selected will be notified prior to the conference.
• Students and alumni selected will be awarded $300 applied to their WSU student account
• We strongly encourage submissions from students of historically marginalized and/or underrepresented backgrounds.
• Accessibility needs and accommodations will be honored—please let us know how we can support you.

Questions?

For inquiries about submissions or accessibility, please contact SIS Academic Services Officer Amber Harrison at aharrison@wayne.edu.

We look forward to learning from your work and amplifying student voices that are shaping a more just and community-centered future for library and information science.