ACRL/NY 2025 Symposium

Pleasure and Play: Finding Joy in LIS Work

When: Friday, December 5, 2025, 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Where: Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus, 113 W 60th St, New York, NY 

“Pleasure activism asserts that we all need and deserve pleasure and that our social structures must reflect this. In this moment, we must prioritize the pleasure of those most impacted by oppression. Pleasure activists seek to understand and learn from the politics and power dynamics inside of everything that makes us feel good.”
    -- adrienne maree brown in Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (2019)

    “To be sure, players are thinkers; but they also are movers. This combination leads to acts of doing and making—not only of objects of many types but also of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Involvement in such activity produces more than intellectual discernment. It leads to excitement, fun, and, perhaps in its most sublime manifestations, joy.”
    -- Henricks, T. S. (2020). Play Studies: A Brief History. American Journal of Play, 12(2), 114–155.

    It seems like every day a new disaster begins as older ones fester. Through compounding environmental and social abandonment, structural racism and inequality, war and genocide, and disappearing higher education budgets, we are still asked to show up at work. In light of everything that feels bad in the world, ACRL/NY’s 2025 symposium theme asks: what feels good in LIS? How do we find joy, or at least contentment, in our jobs? Let’s indulge together and learn from our library pleasures. 

    Check back soon for full program and speaker information, and registration!