Faculty Spotlight

SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May Writes Planning and Assessment Book with SIS Alum & Hodges Librarian Regina Mays

SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May was a public and academic librarian before she decided to pursue her doctorate in information sciences, and that experience has informed what she researches and how she teaches. In both, she “tends to focus on finding better ways to do the things I did as a practitioner with maybe not…
Associate Professor Awa Zhu Elected ASIS&T Deputy SIG Cabinet Director

After serving in different positions over several years in two Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Special Interest Groups (SIGs), Associate Professor Awa Zhu was recently elected to serve as the Deputy SIG Cabinet Director for ASIS&T. She will transition into the role at the end of the upcoming ASIS&T Annual Meeting, which is…
Professor Dania Bilal: Inaugural IDEA Institute on AI at UT a Success

After a lot of hard work and planning, the inaugural IDEA (Innovation, Disruption, Enquiry, Access) Institute on Artificial Intelligence was successfully launched and completed this July at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “It exceeded all our expectations and was the first nationwide event, as far as we know, to train people in aspects of AI…
Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski Receives Bonnie Carroll and Roy Cooper Faculty Enrichment Award

Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski has just wrapped up his second year at the School of Information Sciences, and despite one of those years being in a pandemic, he’s still managed to produce exceptional research that earned him the SIS 2021 Bonnie Carroll and Roy Cooper Faculty Enrichment Award. In the last couple of years, Dobreski…
Empowerment Through Technology: Associate Professor Vandana Singh Given 2021 CCI Faculty Research Award

Associate Professor Vandana Singh wants her research to be a catalyst for change in the real world and therefore she pursues research topics that appeal to practitioners and advance the field of research. She has published about seventy journal articles and conference proceedings and that body of research has been recognized this year with the…
SIS Assistant Professor Ben Horne to Moderate Panel on Social Media and the Rise of Extremism

SIS Assistant Professor Ben Horne has focused much of his research on how misinformation and disinformation spreads online – a topic that has been pushed to the forefront this past year as internet conspiracy theories and extremism have been connected to the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. While it may be a fairly new…
SIS Welcomes Assistant Professor of Practice Joy M. Doan to Faculty

Joy M. Doan has joined the School of Information Sciences this spring as an assistant professor of practice for the master’s program, and brings with her a wealth of experience as an administrator, practitioner, special subject librarian, and as an instructor. Her most recent position was as head of the Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library at…
Faculty Spotlight: Clinical Assistant Professor Ericka Patillo Will Lead Graduate Studies

Clinical Assistant Professor Ericka Patillo has been both an administrator and teacher of information sciences, and will be serving in both capacities at SIS as she takes on the role of Director of Graduate Studies. “I think my combined experiences have equipped me for moving out of the practice and into an arena where I…
Faculty Spotlight: Assistant Professor Ben Horne Joins the SIS Team

Ben Horne joined SIS in August 2020, and combines his background in computer sciences and information sciences to focus his research on safety in online spaces – particularly as it pertains to news and information consumption. He hopes to help students at SIS learn computational skills they can apply to information jobs without having to have…
Faculty Spotlight: New Assistant Professor Jiangen He

Jiangen He said his new position at SIS is ideal for him, both in the description and location, and he couldn’t be more thrilled to start in the fall. “I learned a lot about the research footprint of the different [SIS] faculty members and I feel there is some connection between my research and the…