Scholar-in-Residence (2019), Contributing Editor, Provocation Series
Academic Librarian and Professor
Gustavus Adolphus College
Barbara Fister is the Contributing Editor for the PIL Provocation Series, and was the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at PIL in 2019. She is Professor Emerita at Gustavus Adolphus College where she has coordinated the library’s instruction program for three decades. In addition to collaborative teaching with faculty across the curriculum she has developed courses on research methods, book culture, and (most recently) clickbait, bias, and propaganda in information networks. Barbara holds degrees in Russian and English literature, as well as in library and information science. Her research interests include information literacy, popular reading practices, the future of publishing, and the intersection of technology and society. Her thoughts on all of these topics can be found in her publications and public presentations as well as in her weekly column at Inside Higher Ed that she wrote for 10 years and through December 2019.
Senior Researcher in Information Design
Contributing Writer, PIL Provocation Series
Assistant Teaching Professor/Designer in Residence, Northeastern University, Art + Design
Contributing Editor, Provocation Series (2021 – present)
PIL Scholar-in-Residence
Professor Emerita, Gustavus Adolphus College
Senior Researcher
Associate Editor, Provocation Series
Professor Emerita, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta
Research Analyst
Contributing staff, PIL Provocation Series
First-Year Experience Librarian, The University of Washington Tacoma
Research Analyst
Contributing writer, PIL Provocation Series
Instruction and Outreach Faculty, Central Oregon Community College
Senior Fellow in Information Literacy
Contributing staff, PIL Provocation Series
Associate Professor, Digital Scholarship Liaison, Instruction Librarian,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign