Professor Toni Samek named CFE Scholar-in-Residence for 2024-25
Toni Samek, Professor and former Chair at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta, will be the Centre for Free Expression’s Scholar-in-Residence for 2024-25.
“Prof. Samek is one of Canada’s leading authorities on intellectual freedom, as well as one of its most effective advocates,” said James L. Turk, Director of the Centre for Free Expression (CFE).
“We are delighted that she will spending 2024-25 as our Scholar-in-Residence and, among other things, will play a vital role in our work countering the growing attempts to censor books and curriculum materials in Canadian schools.
Among the books Toni has written or edited are Librarianship and Human Rights: A Twenty-First Century Guide and Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in American Librarianship, 1967-1974.
Toni developed, and continues as primary instructor, for Canada’s only permanent graduate course on intellectual freedom and social responsibility in librarianship, an important part of the Master of Library and Information Studies program at the University of Alberta.
In recognition of her work, Toni has received a number of awards including the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for service to the Alberta library community, Library Association of Alberta’s President’s Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Library and Information Studies Distinguished Alumna Award, and a 3M National Teaching Fellowship from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
