Controversies about books in American libraries are not new, but they have spiked in number over the past two years. Contentious discussions at library and school board meetings are now regular news across the country and recently reached Fresno County with the passage of the Parents Matter Act by the Board of Supervisors, which calls for the sequestering of children’s books with allegedly controversial themes. 

According to PEN America’s 2023 Report on Book Bans, 3,362 instances of individual books were banned during the 2022-23 school year, up 33% from the previous year. Most of the books focus on sexual experiences, gender identity, race and racism, and health and well-being topics. 

Award-winning titles like “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe – challenged for race issues and for sexuality and gender content, respectively – are two of the most commonly banned titles for youth. 

What drives the desire for censorship? What cultural indicators fuel the distrust of books? 

Author, professor and intellectual freedom scholar Dr. Emily JM Knox will explore this question and more at the 2024 Womack Lecture Series, “Book Banning and the Culture Wars,” hosted by the Fresno State Library on Monday, March 18. 

The Womack Lecture events include a panel discussion on intellectual freedom, information ethics and book challenges with Knox and Fresno State faculty, co-sponsored by the Fresno State Ethics Center. The day will conclude with Knox’s lecture, “Book Banning and the Culture Wars.” 

The panel discussion will take place at the Fresno State Library lecture hall (Room 2206) at 2 p.m. The evening’s Womack Lecture will be held in the Library’s Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery at 6 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. 

Knox, whose most recent books include “Foundations of Intellectual Freedom,” “Book Banning in 21st Century America” and “Foundations of Information Ethics,” will address how the removal, relocation and restriction of books is now a widespread practice among certain communities across the country, amounting in a de facto form of censorship which affects how society understands the practice and politics of reading. 

Knox is an associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship. Her most recent book, “Foundations of Intellectual Freedom” won the 2023 Eli M. Oboler Prize for best-published work in the area of intellectual freedom. She serves on the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship and is also editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy. She recently testified before Congress for her expertise in intellectual freedom, censorship and book bannings.

The Womack Lecture is sponsored by the J. Prentice Womack fund, established by the late Rhoda Womack in honor of her husband, a librarian at Fresno State from 1958 to 1970. The annual Womack Lecture Series is focused on bibliographic or social concerns, as stipulated by the family’s bequest to the Library.

For information or special accommodation for the Library’s Womack Lecture, call 559.278.2403.