Professor and EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice
School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama
Bharat Mehra, PhD, is professor and EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama. His many research interests include diversity and inclusion advocacy, intercultural communication and action, social justice in library and information science, community-engaged scholarship, and critical and cross-cultural studies. He has applied action research to further engaged scholarship and community engagement while collaborating with racial/ethnic groups, international diaspora, sexual minorities, rural communities, low-income families, small businesses, and others, to represent their experiences and perspectives in the design of community-based information systems and services.
Dr. Mehra has a distinguished national and international reputation as a scholar and advocate for underserved populations in librarianship and information science as a profession engaged in critical and activist scholarship toward a more inclusive and just society. He has served as principal investigator on several grants funded for over a million dollars by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to conduct impact-driven, action-oriented, and community-engaged research with rural libraries in the Appalachian region to further their capacity building, economic development, sustainable growth, and participatory engagement. Dr. Mehra has extensive editorial experience and currently serves as the Editor of the Advances in Librarianship book series. He was General Editor of the Routledge Library and Information Science Encyclopedia Online (with Drs/ Albright and Chu, 2021-2022). His research has been documented in more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, and he has edited/co-edited six books, including (most recent): Social Justice Design and Implementation in Library and Information Science (2022: Routledge) and, A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning (2021: Libraries Unlimited).
Libraries for Sustainable Development: The Web Portal and Information Action Briefs (Poster 20)
Sunday, June 25, 2023
9:30 AM – 11:00 AM CT