• Sarah Polkinghorne, PhD

    Hello! I'm a Research Fellow in Social Change at RMIT University, Melbourne.

     

    This page is for current highlights.

    For my full CV, please reach out: sarah.polkinghorne@rmit.edu.au

  • Research

    A brief introduction

     

      In my research, I focus on:

      • Human information practices, including embodied practices, which help people become informed. I'm especially interested in practices that are unexamined or assumed to be mundane. My work illustrates how people's everyday information practices are complex, meaningful, and co-constitutive with identity.
      • Embodied practices stemming from misinformation, and the role of technology in miseducating people about their bodies.
      • Scholarly communications, particularly the transition to open access publishing.
      • Information-related discourses and their underlying power relations, norms, and ways of thinking.
      • Information literacy and related pedagogies.

    • Teaching

      Recent

       

        • Human Information Interaction, 2021, for the University of Alberta's School of Library and Information Studies. An exploration of how people experience information.
        • Information Resource Discovery, 2020, for the University of Ottawa's School of Information Studies. An introduction to information services, information practices and experiences, and search.

      • Publications

        In progress & recent

         

        • Presentations

          Upcoming & recent

           

            • I have a body, therefore I think, therefore I am. (2022, June). For Nerd Nite 66, Edmonton, Canada.
            • Reconceiving trial and error: A central information practice in everyday food life. (2021, September). For the 2021 ALISE conference (Association for Library and Information Science Education.
            • Interdisciplinary concept development as a path to impact: 'Vicarious sensory engagement' and YouTube food videos. (2019, October). Symposium of SIG-USE (the Special Interest Group for Information Needs, Seeking, and Use), at the Annual Meeting of ASIS&T (Association for Information Science and Technology), Melbourne, Australia.

          • Practice

            As an academic librarian

             

              Note: I'm currently on leave from the University of Alberta.

               

              The core of my work as a librarian is leading monograph collections at the University of Alberta, including approval plans, demand-driven acquisition, publisher-direct frontlist negotiations, open access transitions, and assessment.

            • Service

              Recent & ongoing commitments

               

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