Fall 2023 is in full swing and we are busy with the work of the semester, but it is worth pausing for a moment to recognize just how much we have to celebrate at the iSchool.
In recent months, we have welcomed several new members to our growing faculty and staff. Our MS Information program continues to attract talented students as it enters its third year. And enrollments in our undergraduate Information Science major are increasing quickly as students seek to understand the relationships between people, information, and technology.
Our new faculty members include two tenured associate professors, Emilee Rader and Rick Wash. Rader works on issues surrounding data privacy and people’s understanding of how their data get used. Wash studies cybersecurity, with an emphasis on how individuals and institutions address threats to their data. We are also excited to welcome Assistant Professor Chaowei Xiao, whose work explores how to make machine learning secure and socially responsible, and Assistant Professor Clinton Castro, an expert in the ethics of emerging technologies. We have also welcomed Cassy Leeport, who joins as our Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums (TLAM) and iSchool Laboratory Library Manager (you can read more about Leeport’s role in a feature article in this issue of Jottings). This is a phenomenal group of people to bring to the iSchool, representing a diverse range of backgrounds and expertise. They greatly enhance our ability to offer excellent educational opportunities across our programs and reflect the field of information science at its interdisciplinary best.
As the iSchool grows, we are adding staff to take on even more challenges. Molly Cook joined us as an administrative specialist after previously serving in a similar role at UW–Whitewater. Tess Maki joined our Continuing Education team after earning her master’s degree in French from UW–Madison, where she also managed programs for Greater University Tutoring Services. And Thomas Jilk joined the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences as a marketing & communications specialist; he is working closely with the iSchool on our communications and outreach efforts.
In addition to all of these new faces, I’m excited to see our research making an impact inside and outside of academia. As the research highlight article in this issue shows, iSchool faculty are engaged in work that crosses disciplines to address myriad information challenges. These include improving citizen science projects, protecting users’ privacy, harnessing data to expose inequalities in academia, and designing information systems to proactively include underrepresented voices in important policy discussions.
I am grateful to be part of such a vibrant academic community, and I’m eager to see what the rest of the semester has in store.
On, Wisconsin!