Vuyokazi Jamieson

I am a PhD student and community-engaged scholar in Information Sciences, and my work explores youth literacy practices, school libraries, and the relationship between literacy, power, and belonging in contexts shaped by structural inequality. My research centers on how young people build meaningful reading lives through everyday practices, peer networks, and literacy spaces—particularly in and around school library environments. Guided by equity-oriented frameworks and participatory research ethics, I am especially interested in approaches that refuse deficit narratives and instead highlight youth knowledge, community expertise, and locally rooted literacies.

Alongside my academic work, I am the founder of Project XXI, a nonprofit initiative advancing access to literacy in South Africa through a collaborative book club and school library model. Project XXI supports partnerships between well-resourced and under-resourced schools, enables youth to select books that reflect their interests and identities, and works toward sustainable library development through community participation and long-term capacity building. The initiative is grounded in the principle: nothing about them without them.

My work sits at the intersection of research and practice: I build literacy infrastructures while also studying how these efforts shape youth agency, reading identity, and experiences of recognition. I welcome opportunities to collaborate with researchers, schools, libraries, nonprofits, and funders committed to youth-centered literacy, community-led educational change, and ethical, relationship-based research.