Dr. LaVerne Gray will discuss the in-progress research of uncovering the industrious life and career of Margaret Reynolds Hunton, the first known Black graduate of Syracuse University’s Library and Information Science (’32) program. The talk places Margaret in a networked environment by emphasizing the power of the Black professional class of women in Libraries during the early 20th Century.

Dr. LaVerne Gray is Assistant Professor at Syracuse University iSchool. Her PhD is from the College of Communication and Information at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her dissertation, “In a Collective Voice: Uncovering the Black Feminist Information Community of Activist-Mothers in Chicago Public Housing, 1955-1970,” explores Black feminist agency in community development within constructed urban spaces. The study employs qualitative analyses of archival documents, to reveal a Black Feminist Information Community(BFIC) framework. Her research was supported through the 2017 Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) Fellowship, where she used archives throughout the city of Chicago to explore evidence for her research.

Using Critical Race and Black Feminist perspectives, LaVerne Gray’s research explores information location and value in marginal community spaces. She is keenly interested in African-American historical information collectives and archival-evidence analysis.

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