Emily Knox (she/her) is an associate professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned her Ph.D. from the doctoral program at the Rutgers University School of Communication & Information, her master’s in library and information science from the iSchool at Illinois, and holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Smith College and an A.M. in the same field from The University of Chicago Divinity School.
Emily is an accomplished author, with her book "Book Banning in 21st Century America" (Rowman & Littlefield) being the inaugural monograph in the Beta Phi Mu Scholars’ Series. Her most recent publication, "Foundations of Intellectual Freedom" (ALA Neal-Schuman), clinched the prestigious 2023 Eli M. Oboler Prize for best published work in intellectual freedom. Her scholarly articles have found homes in esteemed journals like the Library Quarterly, Library and Information Science Research, and Open Information Science.
A committed advocate, Emily serves on the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship and wields editorial responsibility as the steward of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy. Her research delves into critical realms such as information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, information ethics and policy, and the interplay of print culture and reading habits. She contributes her expertise to the Mapping Information Access research team.
Emily's impact extends beyond academia; she has lent her voice to national conversations on intellectual freedom, testifying before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on book banning. Media outlets such as NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, and Slate have sought her insights, underscoring her role as a thought leader at the nexus of information and society.