Conference Presentations by Sherrin Frances
Poster/infographic created for the Archival Education and Research Initiative in July, 2017. Des... more Poster/infographic created for the Archival Education and Research Initiative in July, 2017. Describes a protest library database project in progress. http://shinysite.com/postermockup.jpg
(#2017AERI, http://aeri2017.org/)
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Papers by Sherrin Frances
This article’s focus is the emergence of the Maidan protest library in Kyiv during the 2014 Ukrai... more This article’s focus is the emergence of the Maidan protest library in Kyiv during the 2014 Ukrainian "Revolution of Dignity." While the revolution began as a political protest, it quickly shifted into widespread ethical outrage over the government’s treatment of Ukrainian youth. One indicator of the deep levels of social dissatisfaction among the public was the emergence of a physical library within the intense, dangerous, and temporary occupation of a public building during the conflict. Examining the Maidan Library and its collection of several thousand books within the encampment can illuminate some of the notable ways in which language, power, and security function within the space of radical politics. This article contextualizes this particular Ukrainian space within a much larger trend of protest libraries around the world that includes Occupy Wall Street’s People’s Library, in New York, and Madrid’s BiblioSol, the library within the Indignados’ occupation of Puerta del Sol.
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New Urban Languages: Conference Proceedings, Oct 2016
Abstract – The Biblioteca Popular Victor Martinez is an illegal outdoor library and community gar... more Abstract – The Biblioteca Popular Victor Martinez is an illegal outdoor library and community garden that has existed on the grounds of an abandoned, city-owned, Carnegie library building in Oakland, California, United States, since 2012. While the city is aware of the Biblioteca, officials have taken no significant action to remove the activists from the property. This has allowed the Biblioteca to develop within a state of semi-permanence that is situated between safety and danger. Study of such a heterotopic space can provide planners, cultural critics, and community members with inspiration and an openness to revitalization efforts not centered on gentrification.
Full paper: https://nulconference.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/nul-2015-proceedings/
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Despite its abrupt and negative end, the emergence of the OWS People's Library is much too meanin... more Despite its abrupt and negative end, the emergence of the OWS People's Library is much too meaningful to file away as a short-lived footnote within the Occupy narrative. It is a complex, uncanny space, and a turn toward the similarly uncanny fiction of Jorge Luis Borges may help us to better understand its significance. Borges's stories and the People's Library both embody a particular convergence of variables, and the unique "triple heterotopic" space that emerges forces important questions about distribution of power in the face of external, uncontrollable, political currents.
Full paper: http://ctheory.net/ows-peoples-library-and-jorge-luis-borges-radical-politics-heterotopic-spaces-and-the-practice-of-hope/
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Literacy Link, Dec 2013
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Itineration, Sep 1, 2013
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disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory, Sep 2013
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Literacy Link, Dec 2012
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Talks by Sherrin Frances
Keynote given at Cal-Poly Pomona to introduce their first Living Library event in May, 2018.
A... more Keynote given at Cal-Poly Pomona to introduce their first Living Library event in May, 2018.
Abstract:
Public libraries are actively swapping their physical book collections for digital texts and remodeling their "stacks" as "maker spaces." Physical books, these institutions tell us, can easily be accessed online and read using the phone in your pocket, and physical space is better used for collaborative activities. Yet at the same time, "outsider" libraries are on the rise. These are spaces in public places comprised of anywhere from a dozen to hundreds or even thousands of physical books. Examples include the popular "little free libraries," libraries within political protests like Occupy Wall Street and 15M, and even an "underpass library" run by and for homeless people in Toronto. This talk will examine why people go to so much trouble to create physical libraries despite the fact that, at least at first glance, they seem to be more trouble than they are worth.
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Conference Presentations by Sherrin Frances
(#2017AERI, http://aeri2017.org/)
Papers by Sherrin Frances
Full paper: https://nulconference.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/nul-2015-proceedings/
Full paper: http://ctheory.net/ows-peoples-library-and-jorge-luis-borges-radical-politics-heterotopic-spaces-and-the-practice-of-hope/
Talks by Sherrin Frances
Abstract:
Public libraries are actively swapping their physical book collections for digital texts and remodeling their "stacks" as "maker spaces." Physical books, these institutions tell us, can easily be accessed online and read using the phone in your pocket, and physical space is better used for collaborative activities. Yet at the same time, "outsider" libraries are on the rise. These are spaces in public places comprised of anywhere from a dozen to hundreds or even thousands of physical books. Examples include the popular "little free libraries," libraries within political protests like Occupy Wall Street and 15M, and even an "underpass library" run by and for homeless people in Toronto. This talk will examine why people go to so much trouble to create physical libraries despite the fact that, at least at first glance, they seem to be more trouble than they are worth.
(#2017AERI, http://aeri2017.org/)
Full paper: https://nulconference.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/nul-2015-proceedings/
Full paper: http://ctheory.net/ows-peoples-library-and-jorge-luis-borges-radical-politics-heterotopic-spaces-and-the-practice-of-hope/
Abstract:
Public libraries are actively swapping their physical book collections for digital texts and remodeling their "stacks" as "maker spaces." Physical books, these institutions tell us, can easily be accessed online and read using the phone in your pocket, and physical space is better used for collaborative activities. Yet at the same time, "outsider" libraries are on the rise. These are spaces in public places comprised of anywhere from a dozen to hundreds or even thousands of physical books. Examples include the popular "little free libraries," libraries within political protests like Occupy Wall Street and 15M, and even an "underpass library" run by and for homeless people in Toronto. This talk will examine why people go to so much trouble to create physical libraries despite the fact that, at least at first glance, they seem to be more trouble than they are worth.