SLIS faculty member Dr. Iulian Vamanu's latest publication is now available online. The article, "Cultivating Imagination: A Case for Teaching Information Ethics With Works of Fiction," examines how fiction can be used when teaching information ethics in LIS cirriculumn. The article is available in the latest issue of the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science and can be accessed digitally through the University of Iowa Libraries.

Article Abstract:

This article argues that the MLIS curriculum should offer information ethics courses that enable future information professionals to develop their imaginative powers through close study and discussion of fiction. LIS students reading ethical theory and fiction bring the two into conversation and as a result reach a better understanding of both. Crucially, this process presupposes the exercise of empathetic imagination, a mental capacity that helps us inhabit other perspectives and modes of being in the world. The paper supports this discussion with evidence from an instructional intervention implemented during an information ethics course within an LIS program at a large public research university.