Understanding Higher-Ed’s Attention Crisis: Pedagogical Approaches for Literacy in Academic Libraries
Lightning Talk | Thursday, June 12th, 2025 | 12:30pm – 1:00pm EST
This presentation explores the growing challenges Gen Z students face in engaging with long-form reading and critical thinking, exacerbated by the ongoing sociopolitical and environmental crises in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. Rather than narrowing educational goals to job preparation, Stachura argues for reimagined roles academic librarians can take on in fostering critical information literacy as a mode of resistance against the attention economy—and its relationship to global capitalism and fascism-as-process. Proposed strategies like algorithm education and “sidewalk studies” can assist students in reclaiming their attention, encouraging deeper engagement with both their academic work and the world around them.
[This discussion will be recorded.]
Presenter: Carson Stachura
Carson Stachura (he/him) is a freelance analog photographer based in Queens, New York with a background in gender studies, and a recent graduate from Pratt Institute’s MSLIS program. A Gen Z student himself, Stachura is curious about the ways information professionals can apply their skills and resources towards on-the-ground organizing and facilitating political education, both within and beyond their institutions. He spends his free moments printing photos in the darkroom, taking care of his houseplants, dancing with friends, and dreaming.