Information is Power: Hidden Histories, Knowledge Justice & Future Systems

Information is never neutral: it is produced, mediated, classified, preserved, corrupted, obscured, mis-used, recovered, and re-used. How this is done, and critically, by whom, shapes whose knowledge is recognised, whose histories are archived, and whose futures can be imagined. The Department of Information Studies (DIS) Annual Research Symposium (19 May 2026) is a UCL Faculty Arts and Humanities flagship event that brings together researchers and practitioners across libraries, archives and records management, publishing, digital humanities, data/AI, and information science to explore information power – information as a currency of power and, potentially, empowerment – as a grand challenge of our time. As part of UCL200, we ask what it means to “rediscover” and “reclaim” information: to recover hidden histories, redesign systems of stewardship, and build equitable knowledge infrastructures that serve communities with fairness, integrity, accountability, and care. The symposium invites colleagues from across UCL, the cultural sector, policy, and civil society to engage with our groundbreaking departmental foundations and current emerging research on knowledge justice, information governance, AI ethics, information activism, and future-facing infrastructures.

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Host or Publisher UCL Department of Information Studies