2026 ALISE Annual Conference

Leah T Dudak is a former librarian and current Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University’s Information School. Dudak’s research looks at public libraries and the trauma that library staff encounter giving attention to supporting library workers, systemic issues contributing to trauma, trauma-informed care, and librarianship. She also pays attention to the embodied and gendered experience of library work. For methods, Dudak pulls on feminist qualitative methods, adding in art as method and knowledge making. She views her work situated in feminist, disability, and artistic lenses. She currently works with Urban Librarians Unite as their research assistant, helping with the 2022 trauma study along with the forthcoming peer support network. She holds an MLIS from the University of Illinois.