kailynslater@proton.me
Research Interests
Information infrastructures, computational capital, knowledge production, memory studies, media archaeology, critical cultural studies, digital preservation, archival theory
Education
M.S., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Library and Information Science
M.A., University of Illinois Chicago
Communication
Advisor: Zizi Papacharissi
B.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Studio with Visual and Critical Studies Thesis
Advisor: Karen Morris
Selected Publications
Slater, Kailyn. 2025. “Against AI: Critical Refusal in the Library.” Library Trends 73 (4): 588-608. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2025.a968497.
🌐︎ 2025 Winner of the Library Juice Annual Paper Contest
Slater, Kailyn. 2025. “Relationality Over Neutrality: On Technology.” Information Technology and Libraries 44 (4): 1-8. https://doi.org/10.5860/ital.v44i4.17581.
Slater, Kailyn. 2025. “From Communication Studies to Captured Content: A Junior Fellow’s Contribution to the Mass Communication Web Archive.” The Signal: Digital Happenings at the Library of Congress, August 20. https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2025/08/from-communications-studies-to-captured-content-a-junior-fellows-contribution-to-the-mass-communication-web-archive/.
Recent Conference + Media Activity
🗎 Society for the Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting: “Beyond Romanticism, Towards Solidary: The Public Library as Space for Technocritical Inquiry”
🌐︎ A Critical Conversation on AI in Librarianship, https://libraryjuiceconnections.org/events/critical-conversation-ai-in-librarianship/
🗎 Generative AI in Libraries conference, with Library Freedom Project: “We are burning the world for…this? Analyzing the Results of Library Freedom Project’s AI in Libraries Survey”
🗎 Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium, “Relationality Against Technochauvinism: Critical AI as Praxis”
🌐︎ Podcast appearance on Politechs with Library Freedom Project, https://politechs.dev/episodes/s02-libraries/
Affiliations
🌐︎ Library Freedom Project
🌐︎ Library Futures Research Network
🌐︎ AI + Planetary Justice Alliance
🌐︎ Society for the Social Studies of Science
🌐︎ Inter Chicago Circle for Experimental Critical Theory
🌐︎ Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology, & Computing
🌐︎ Society of American Archivists
🌐︎ American Library Association
