University of Chicago Appoints First Banned Books Postdoctoral Scholar, Dulcey Hunter
The University of Chicago Library has appointed Dulcey Hunter as its first banned books postdoctoral scholar. This initiative follows Illinois becoming the first state in 2023 to enact a law allowing the secretary of state's office to withhold grant funding from libraries that do not adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which opposes the proscription or removal of materials due to partisan or doctrinal disapproval. Concurrently, the University of Chicago Library launched its Banned Books Initiative, collecting banned and challenged books in the U.S. and making them accessible digitally and through interlibrary loan. Hunter, an English language arts educator with over two decades of experience teaching middle and high school students in Florida, will dedicate the upcoming academic year to developing a pedagogical framework. This framework aims to help teachers understand the reasons behind the censorship of narratives depicting difficult life experiences and painful truths. Her r...
