Restricted Reading: What Book Bans Mean for Health and Justice
Pizza dinner provided!
Join this year’s cohort of Banned Books Undergraduate Research Fellows as they share their research on how recent book-ban legislation — such as Missouri’s SB 775, enacted in 2022 and just declared unconstitutional on November 17, 2025 — shapes access to information about reproductive health and justice. Their projects explore the broader relationship between freedom of information, health and social equity, asking what bodies, identities and experiences students are allowed to encounter in literature, and what is lost when those books are restricted. Participants will present their findings and discuss the implications of limiting student access to materials deemed “sexually explicit,” highlighting the real-world consequences of these bans for young readers.
Note: The application deadline for the spring 2026 Banned Books Undergraduate Research Fellowship is Wednesday, December 17.
Wiley Luan, Political Science
Wiley’s research examines the censorship in multiple countries (and languages) of Haruki Murakami’s works, exploring how his identity and authorial choices are interpreted in through translation and within different national contexts.
Aram Ashrafzadeh, History
Aram’s project compares the language and motivations behind 1950s McCarthyist moral panics about homosexuality with today’s Texas anti-LGBTQ+ book ban legislation, then examines those policies in the context of global geopolitics.
Casey Preis, Political Science
Through close analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale graphic novel, Casey’s project demonstrates how vague restrictive laws like the Comstock Act and Missouri’s SB 775 lead to community conflict and the silencing of educational stories that empower vulnerable individuals.
Ava Wang, Biology, Pre-Law
Ava’s project analyzes how Missouri school districts have misapplied SB 775 to remove legally protected books like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, arguing that the law’s vague language causes districts to over-comply out of fear rather than legal obligation.
Ussiel Martinez Sandoval, First Year (likely Global Studies)
Ussiel closely studies Jeannette Walls’ award-winning memoir The Glass Castle (banned in several school districts), exploring how such bans disproportionately censor crucial discourses to do with sexuality, low-income communities, rural populations and women.