Banned Books Undergraduate Research Fellowship

Banned Books Undergraduate Research Fellowship

Book banning — the practice of removing certain titles from library shelves, reading lists and K–12 curricula — is one of the most pressing issues in U.S. education news today. The question of what to ban, and why, is part of a larger conversation about the role of various writing in public life across temporalities, languages and national borders. That conversation speaks to both the power of books to inspire and enact change, as well as to the vulnerability of their authors and readers to various censoring and repressive powers. Students in this year’s cohort of undergraduate Banned Books Fellows will focus on the limits on knowledge of reproductive health and justice that are a consequence of the rise in book bans stemming from Missouri’s SB 775, which passed in 2023 and criminalizes dissemination of “explicit sexual materials” to students.