Emily Knox is interim dean and professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include information access and intellectual freedom and censorship. She is a member of the Mapping Information Access research team. The second edition of her book Book Banning in 21st Century America was published in January 2026. Her previous book Foundations of Intellectual Freedom won the 2023 Eli M. Oboler Prize for best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. She has been interviewed by media outlets such as NPR and The New York Times and also testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on book banning.