Elizabeth Hoiem

Elizabeth Hoiem is an Associate Professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She was recently honored with the 2025 Justin G. Schiller Prize for her groundbreaking book The Education of Things: Mechanical Literacy in British Children's Literature, 1762-1860. Her research spans the history of children's literature, material culture, digital humanities pedagogy, and the politics of literacy and technology in industrial Britain.

• PhD in English, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2013)
• MA in Cultural Studies, Carnegie Mellon University (2004)
• BA/BFA in English and Communication Design, SUNY Buffalo (2002)

Her work interrogates the intersection of playful learning, child labor, and colonial ideologies in 18th-19th century Britain. She examines how mechanical literacy and material artifacts shaped educational practices, linking historical developments to contemporary debates about STEAM education and technological access. Her research has been supported by a NEH Fellowship and multiple campus grants.

Hoiem has received prestigious awards including the 2025 Schiller Prize, 2021 HRI Prize, and 2017 Judith Plotz Award. Key contributions include:

• 2024 University of Massachusetts Press monograph The Education of Things
• Analysis of slavery representations in children's books (2021)
• Historical studies on radical texts for working children (2017)

She collaborates with iSchool faculty and students to explore the practical implications of historical research in modern educational contexts and is currently a Visiting Honorary Fellow at the University of Leeds.