Position
Information Literacy Librarian
Education
- Master of Library and Information Science, Kent State University
- BA, Dual: Film Studies and Communication, University of Pittsburgh
Background & Areas of Expertise
- Information Literacy
- Library Equity & Inclusivity
- Film Studies
- Media Production
- Comics Studies
Please explore my research guides, and don’t hesitate to contact me for help throughout your research process, from developing a topic, to identifying and evaluating sources, to citing sources!
I began my career as a video editor and enjoy films of a variety of genres from around the world. I became a librarian due to my interest in media education. I work to help people integrate information literacy into their daily lives, and since 2014 my research has focused on the connections between worldviews, storytelling, and politics through depictions of justice in superhero media.
Selected Publications & Presentations
Boucher, I. (Ed.). (2017). Humans and paragons: Essays on super-hero justice. Sequart Organization.
Boucher, I. (2017, October 18). Cultivating critical discourse with a library movie group. Presented at the North Carolina Library Association (NCLA) 62nd Biennial Conference, Winston-Salem, NC.
Boucher, I. (2018). Applying suspense to archetypal superheroes: Hitchcockian ambiguity in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Mise-en-scène: The Journal of Film & Visual Narration, 3(1), 52-67.
Boucher, I. (2018). Casting a wider lasso: An analysis of the cultural dismissal of Wonder Woman through her 1975-1979 television series. Popular Culture Review, 29(2), 151-191.
Boucher, I. (2018, October 20). Assembling the ancestral frame: Successful comic book ambiguity in Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther. Presented at Graphic Justice Discussions 2018, St. Francis College, NY.
Boucher, I. (2019). Buttressed beliefs, informed action: Black Lives Matter, an academic library and building critical community discourse. In S. Epstein, C. Smallwood, & V. Gubnitskaia (Eds.), Social justice and activism in libraries: Essays on diversity and change (pp. 21-28). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Boucher, I. (2019). Case study: Creating free online branching games with PowerPoint skills. In J. E. Pitts, L. Bonella, J. M. Coleman, & A. Wathen (Eds.), Library services for online patrons: A manual for facilitating access, learning, and engagement (pp. 94-96). Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Boucher, I. (2020, October 10). Black Lives Matter and the unmasking of America’s superheroes. Recorded invited lecture for Festiwal DwuTakt Renesans Superbohaterów. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWA8S9o6hlo
Boucher, I. (2021). Forging Kryptonite: Lex Luthor’s xenophobia as societal fracturing, from Batman v Superman to Supergirl. In J. Darowski (Ed.), Adapting Superman: Essays on the transmedia Man of Steel (pp. 216-234). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Boucher, I. (forthcoming). Barbara Gordon as information literacy activist in Batgirl: Son of Penguin. In C. Syma, R. G. Weiner, & D. Callender (Eds.), Drawn to the stacks: Essays on libraries, librarians and archives in comics and graphic novels. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Boucher, I. (in progress). Radical franchise or green machine? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & U.S. environmental justice rhetoric. The University Press of Mississippi.
Sundbom, A., & Boucher, I. (2017, October 20). NCWCritters: An augmented reality scavenger hunt for first year undergraduate students. Presented at the North Carolina Library Association (NCLA) 62nd Biennial Conference, Winston-Salem, NC.