Romel Espinel

Romel Espinel serves as liaison to the Graduate School of Architecture and Undergraduate Math & Science. His work and research explore libraries, pedagogy, equity, and literature, with a focus on working-class communities in the U.S. and Latin America. As an artist, he creates music, writing, and photography that reflect and extend his scholarly commitments.

M.S. Library & Information Science, Pratt Institute •  M.A. Critical Theory, American Literature & Creative Writing, Rutgers University-Newark (in progress) • B.A. English: Creative Writing. Minor: Photography. New Jersey City University.

Publications:

• Espinel, R. (in press). Decolonizing the algorithm: Frantz Fanon, AI, and the messy middle of librarianship. In T. Withorn & M. Accardi (Eds.), Critical perspectives on AI in librarianship. Library Juice Press.
• Espinel, R., & Tewell, E. (2023). Working conditions are learning conditions: Understanding information literacy instruction through neoliberal capitalism. Communications in Information Literacy, 17(2), 573–590
• Espinel, R. (2016). Question authority and be an authority: The future belongs to us. In Critical library pedagogy handbook: Lesson plans, volume 2. Association of College & Research Libraries Press.

Selected Presentations:

• Espinel, R. (2026, April). From markers to meaning: Using dry-erase boards to reframe keyword searching through critical information literacy [Conference presentation]. LILAC: The Information Literacy Conference, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.

  Espinel, R., & Wilson, H. (2025). Repair after shock and awe: Critical pedagogy and zine libraries as tools to rebuild and maintain communities [Conference presentation]. 47th Annual Conference for the Association of Architecture Librarians and Archivists, New Orleans, LA.

  Espinel, R., DeWitt, M., McCaffrey, E., Vela Bisbee, K., Evans, G., & Hinchliffe, L. (2021, May 20). Gone phishing: Service continuity after a cyber attack [Webinar]. CHOICE, Association of College & Research Libraries.

  Espinel, R., Almeida, N., Tewell, E., & Hinchliffe, L. (2019, April 12). From value to values: Information literacy, capitalism, & resistance [Conference presentation]. Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) National Conference, Cleveland, OH.

  Espinel, R., Costello, L., & Valenti, A. (2019). Working the problem and proving our value with chat references [Conference presentation]. VALE New Jersey Annual Users’ Conference 2019, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.

  Espinel, R., Almeida, N., Tewell, E., & Hinchliffe, L. (2018, February 2). Reproducing and resisting capitalism through information literacy [Conference presentation]. Libraries in the Context of Capitalism Symposium, Metro NYC.

  Espinel, R. (2018). Transforming our roles through diversity programming [Conference presentation]. VALE New Jersey Annual Users’ Conference 2018, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.

  Espinel, R. (2017). Training agents of change: Critical pedagogy in the library instruction classroom [Conference presentation]. VALE New Jersey Annual Users’ Conference 2017, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ.