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The Department of Communication in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences will host a screening of the documentary film “Banned Together” on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 6 p.m. in ILC S350. A question-and-answer session with Kate Way, the film’s co-producer and co-director, will follow the screening.

“Banned Together” follows three students and their adult allies as they fight to reinstate 97 books suddenly pulled from their school libraries. As they evolve from local to national activists—meeting with bestselling authors, politicians, Constitutional experts, and more—the film reveals the dark forces behind the accelerating wave of book bans in the U.S.

Way is a critical educator, photographer and documentary filmmaker based in western Massachusetts. Her interests lie in the intersection of media literacy, public education and policy, and social and economic justice. As a high school English teacher for almost 20 years, Way came to specialize in working with students to use media arts to better understand contemporary social issues and to affect social change. She later earned a doctorate in language, literacy, and culture with a focus on critical media literacy education and the politics of K-12 schooling. She is currently an assistant teaching professor in digital media at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Part of the SBS Democracy Project, the event is open to the public and registration is not required. Light refreshments will be served following the film screening.

More information about this and other SBS Democracy Project events can be found on the project’s website.