iWords: Exploring the interdisciplinary vocabularies of information research

Language presents an insightful lens through which to consider issues of identity and interdisciplinarity within the field of information science. Through a multiphase research project, we seek to facilitate discussion among practitioners, graduate students and faculty about the way words shape our conceptualizations of information research. This work reports on the theoretical underpinnings of our inquiry and provides preliminary results from the first phase of our project, which included a workshop with 22 members of the iSchool community. During this arts-based workshop, participants created keyword cards and word dice to generate dialogues about the role of language in the field of information research. Moving forward, we will adopt a Social Interactional Approach (De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2008) to the narrative analysis of these artefacts, exploring the ways scholars used them to frame their research and construct their professional identities.