Keynote Speakers

Opening Plenary

Sunday, 29 October, 2023 | 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM GMT

Alison Phipps

Alison Phipps is UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow and Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies. She was De Carle Distinguished Visiting Professor at Otago University, Aotearoa New Zealand 2019-2020, Thinker in Residence at the EU Hawke Centre, University of South Australia in 2016, Visiting Professor at Auckland University of Technology, and Principal Investigator for AHRC Large Grant ‘Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language, the body, law and the state’; for Cultures of Sustainable Peace, and is now co-Director of the Global Challenge Research Fund South Migration Hub. She is Ambassador for the Scottish Refugee Council. She is an academic, activist, educator and published poet.

Tawona Sitholé

Tawona Sitholé is a poet, playwright, mbira musician, educator and facilitator. His ancestral family name, Ganyamatope, is a reminder of his heritage, which inspires him to make connections with other people through creativity, and the natural outlook to learn. As co-founder of Seeds of Thought arts group, Tawona’s work involves supporting and facilitating access to the creative arts. Tawona is Poet in Residence for GRAMNet and works in a variety of settings and institutions. He is Research Associate with the Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) research project. As he continues to write, teach and perform, mostly he appreciates his work for the many inspiring people it allows him to meet.

For a taste of Tawona's work, watch him perform A Guide to the Traveller.

Tawona Sitholé's Opening Keynote Address Abstract

Opening Keynote Address: Librarians as Lifelines: In Praise of Critical Information Care
There isn’t a gathering of those seeking asylum or who live amongst us having been granted refuge when the subject of the local library does not feature. Sometimes it’s because the library is under threat and is a vital lifeline; sometimes it’s just in passing in a story of one of the myriad journeys people take in rebuilding lives.

In this plenary we will consider the ways in which information and the ways in which it is held, with care and attention, is a critical part of belonging and homemaking. Judith Butler, in her Nobel lecture (2011), said that “revolution happens when everyone refuses to go home.” Whilst this was said of the protests in Tahrir Square it also resonates in quieter ways with the many hours people spend in libraries, with librarians, as revolutions in language, employment, family lives, applications and in the imagination move through attentive, warming bodies, and into the world.

Drawing on decades of work across the world which seeks to make a difference in the lives of those who have lost their cultural heritage, their hope of education, their family connections. Focusing on what Mbembe (2021) calls the ‘archives’ of the world, and of these destituted and dislocated worlds, we will offer examples of how critical, decolonial work of care and cultural justice can change the way knowledge is imagined, stored, and storied. In it we will return repeatedly to the role of guardians of information and their caregiving in critical and crisis contexts.

Using poetry, art and performance and the world as archive will be invoked and the sensory dimensions of a translation of research in ways which enable change will be brought to life.

Closing Plenary

Tuesday, 31 October, 2023 | 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM GMT

Dr. Stuart Hamilton

Dr. Stuart Hamilton is the Head of Libraries Development for the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) in Ireland. He is the national advisor on public libraries and leads the development and implementation of the national public library strategy across 31 local authorities. He is the current Chair of the National Authorities on Public Libraries in Europe (NAPLE) Forum, the Chair of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Europe Regional Division, and a member of IFLA’s Regional Council.

Dr. Hamilton was previously Deputy Executive Director of International Relations and Communications at the Qatar National Library where he developed the library’s international relations, partnerships and outreach activities, and led the coordination of the library’s opening in 2017/2018. Before moving to Qatar he was Deputy Secretary General at IFLA in the Netherlands where he directed the Federation’s policy and advocacy work around copyright, human rights, Internet governance, and all issues relating to access to information, libraries and the digital environment. He was responsible for IFLA’s engagement with WIPO and UNESCO, as well as work relating to WSIS, the IGF, and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He holds a PhD in Library and Information Science from the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dr. Stuart Hamilton's Closing Keynote Address Abstract

If You Don’t Get It the First Time, Back Up and Try It Again (Party): How Information Research Must Be Harnessed to Improve Library Advocacy

Blatantly stealing the title of a JB’s song to argue in favour of a new impetus to library advocacy, Stuart will review the past twenty five years of international library policy development and advocacy to see how far we’ve come, and how far we’ve yet to go. Stopping along the way to look at specific examples relating to copyright reform, intellectual freedom, and open access, he will call for greater collaboration between the library research sector and advocacy organisations seeking to change things for the better. A new deal and a greater understanding of the relationship between research and advocacy can lead to the promised land – party!