Bio

Matthew Lawrence recently completed a Master of Information Studies degree from McGill University. He previously received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Rhode Island College (2004) and has since worked as a freelance writer, editor, curator, and public events programmer.

Lawrence edited Law and Order Party, a curated email-based guide to art events happening in Rhode Island. The newsletter included 262 weekly issues from 2015–2020, as well as a popular annual summer guide. In 2019, Lawrence’s hybrid fiction/video essay was part of the Webby nominated digital catalog Raid the Icebox Now with Nicole Eisenman: Tonight we are going out and we are all getting hammered, which accompanied Eisenman’s exhibition at the RISD Museum. His writing has also appeared in a number of regional art publications as well as The New Inquiry, The Guardian, and Salon.

Honors

2021: Rabkin Foundation Prize for Visual Arts Journalism (finalist)

2020: Community Development Grant, Brown Arts Institute

2012-2018: Board Member, Providence Community Library
2015-2018: Vice President, Board of Trustees
2014-2017: Chair, Development Committee

2015: Public Humanities Scholar Award, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities

Selected Projects

Digital Preservation of Sensitive Materials

• Case studies demonstrating the historic need for LGBTQ+ collections in traditional and community archives [Preservation Management]

Public shaming, COVID-19, and AIDS metaphors

• Analysis of the fleetingly popular Instagram account @gaysovercovid [Emerging Media]

Alcohol abuse on contemporary country radio

• Text mining project using R to analyze incidents of alcohol use in popular song lyrics [Data Science]

How not to spread misinformation

• Lighthearted instructional video aimed at older public library patrons [Information Literacy]

Recent Coursework