Every day, university presses worldwide step up to educate and enlighten, motivate and inspire, support and act.

This week, the University of Illinois Press (UIP) is highlighting exciting content, projects, and initiatives from our journals and books departments that allow our us and our authors to #StepUP. Make sure to check out blog posts from other university presses in the Association of University Presses’ (AUP) UP Week blog tour and browse the #StepUP gallery and reading list here.

This year, the University of Illinois Press co-hosted an in-person event that featured speakers and panel discussions on topics including book banning, censorship, and the importance of reading and books to fostering public dialogue, inclusion, and engaged citizenship. Below is a reflection on that event.

The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) and the University of Illinois Press were proud to present the symposium “Free People Read Freely” [a phrase used with gracious permission of the American Library Association] at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, August 20-21, 2024. Anne Craig, CARLI Senior Director, and Laurie Matheson, Director of the University of Illinois Press, led the conception and coordination of the event, with multifaceted support from CARLI and U of I Press staff. The symposium was supported with generous funding from the University of Illinois System.

The symposium opened in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Tryon Festival Theatre with an inspiring keynote conversation between award-winning authors Clint Smith and George M. Johnson, moderated by Urbana Poet Laureate Ruby Mendenhall. A spirited keynote from author and activist Tony Diaz launched the second day’s events in the Illinois Ballroom at the I Hotel. Both keynotes were framed by introductions from Nick Jones, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs of the UI System, with video remarks from U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Alexi Giannoulias.

More than 300 attendees gathered at the I Hotel for the subsequent offerings of the two-day event, with scholars from the University of Illinois System and beyond presenting informative and illuminating panel discussions and papers about the effects and perils of censorship. Attendees heard from Rebecca Amato, director of the Odyssey Project at Illinois Humanities, and Antoinette Burton, director of U of I’s Humanities Research Institute and Humanities without Walls program, and from representatives of the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Foundation Joyce McIntosh and Barbara Jones with Emily Knox, Professor at U of I’s School of Information Science.

Other highlights of the symposium included a dynamic performance piece based on texts from banned books by women authors presented by graduate students and faculty from the Department of Theater at U of I Laney Rodriguez, Gracie Benson, Lisa G. Dixon, Shannon Donovan, and Grania McKirdie; and a powerful roundtable of perspectives on the value of books and reading by alumni of the Education Justice Project (EJP) Raphael Jackson, Marcelo de Jesus, and Erick Nava, moderated by EJP Director Rebecca Ginsburg. Tamara Bhalla, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Esmeralda Arrizón-Palomera, University of Illinois Chicago, presented papers on aspects of literary cultures of inclusion and exclusion; and U of I librarian Lisa Hinchliffe presented a closing keynote on privacy issues around book banning and libraries. Additional features of the event included an interactive exhibit, created and hosted by Kate McDowell, inviting attendees to share stories of meaningful childhood encounters with books; a photo booth for documenting attendees’ commitment to reading freely; and a raffle of banned books. For complete details, including session descriptions and speaker bios, please visit https://www.carli.illinois.edu/Free-People-Read-Freely.

See also: “The humanities by the book” by Antoinette Burton in Smile Politely.