Emily Knox

Emily Knox is the Interim Dean and Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's School of Information Sciences. She holds a PhD from Rutgers University's School of Communication & Information. Her research focuses on intellectual freedom, censorship, information ethics, and library policy, with notable contributions including Foundations of Intellectual Freedom (2023), which won the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award. She has testified before the U.S. Senate on book bans and serves on the National Coalition Against Censorship Board.

Education:

• PhD in Communication, Information, and Library Studies, Rutgers University

Research Interests:

• Information access equity
• Library censorship dynamics
• Policy implications of intellectual freedom
• Makerspace impact analysis

Awards:

• 2024 ALISE Excellence in Teaching Award
• 2023 Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award
• 2022 Chicagoan of the Year for Books

Grants & Projects:

• Mapping Information Access initiative
• Makerspace Impact Evaluation

Labs/Teams: Member of the Mapping Information Access research team and editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy.