and Women's and Gender Studies Portfolio
LIS 691 | Independent Study: Writing Bibliotherapy for the Sexually Abused Body
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This course allowed me to merge my academic, personal, and research interests into a project that pertained to the fields of library studies, women's and gender studies, psychology, literature, eating disorders, and sexual abuse recovery. I grew as a researcher as I reached out to advocacy organizations and conducted surveys (even personal interviews) with survivors of sexual trauma to inquire as to what literary resources have proven beneficial to their recoveries. The research involved collecting titles that have aided individuals in their transition from victim to survivor, but the survivor's own words and stories deepened my understanding of why/how certain works of literature have bibliotherapeutic value. As a creative application of the research data, I continued writing my own bibliotherapeutic novel. The novel relays a young male's recovery from incest and his efforts in developing artistic autonomy and an identity separate from the abuse. The research data I collected from the bibliotherapy study informed my editing of the novel, the crafting of the novel's ending, and my depiction of the perpetrator.
Fall 2015 Semester
All images on this site are of my own original paintings and digital media.
WGS 650 | Feminist Theory
Intersections of Gender, Race, and Class
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This course led me to profoundly rethink the theoretical discussions pertaining to feminism that center around the subject of gender. The theoretical approaches I read destabilized the monoliths of white feminist scholarship (in and out of academia) and bestowed visibility onto voices that are not privileged as gendered, racial, bodily, or 'human' subjects.
WGS 650 | Feminist Theory
Intersections of Gender, Race, and Class
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This course led me to profoundly rethink the theoretical discussions pertaining to feminism that center around the subject of gender. The theoretical approaches I read destabilized the monoliths of white feminist scholarship (in and out of academia) and bestowed visibility onto voices that are not privileged as gendered, racial, bodily, or 'human' subjects.
LIS 600 | Foundations of Library and Information Studies
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This class led me to consider the ethical responsibility I have in my role as a distributor and facilitator of a large array of information amongst an equally diverse population of individuals. Foundational research methods learned have prompted me to consider the role of research in the library field.
LIS 620| Information Sources and Services: Reference and Resources
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I learned through this course behaviors and actions that better constitute the identification of information needs. Whether through finding appropriate resources or negotiating information requests, I know that distributing information requires interaction regardless of the direct or indirect ways in which it is distributed.
Spring 2016 Semester
ENG 688 | Women's Rhetoric and Feminist Pedagogy
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Throughout this course, I reflected on the means by which women and other marginalized individuals assert their rhetorical agency in a variety of social and political contexts. As I studied women's identity politics and knowledge construction across millennia, I gathered an awareness of female contributions to literary and general history--a dynamic series of countless actions that resist positing the concept of 'woman' as an indivisible category of analysis. Along with exploring the rhetorically agential processes that women assert through speech, dress, and even silence, I learned about different ways to integrate feminist principles into instruction, thereby making the classroom/library a feminist space.
LIS 650 | Library Administration and Management
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Through an overview of management literature, library case studies, and administrative styles, I gained an awareness of how effective management functions within information centers. The course included an exploration of different roles that librarians may take in initiating programs for patrons and navigating issues that might arise for specific repositories.
LIS 688| Archives Management
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I learned through this course important paradigm shifts within the archives world as well as practical procedures involved in facilitating an archival repository. Along with reading seminal literature by prominent archivists and case studies that prompted questioning of archival ethics, I gathered a stronger sense of the necessity of advocating for archives--for they are more than just spaces safe-keeping history, they are entities facilitating the ways in which we interpret the past.
Summer 2016 Semester
CED 688 | Social Justice Advocacy in the Community: A Counseling-Based Approach
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Perhaps my favorite course in all of graduate school, CED 688 prompted me to excavate my role as an advocate for social justice in professional, communal, and personal spheres of my life. As part of the Counseling and Educational Services Department, this course led me to consider my own positionality within communities I advocate for as well as the diverse perspectives belonging to individuals within these communities. I was able to examine, through a process of reflection and action, the ways in which I can grown cognitively and behaviorally as a social justice advocate who promotes elemental tenets of the the counseling field.
LIS 635 | Media Production Services for Library Programs
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This class expanded my understanding of transliteracy as one's ability to utilize and comprehend a variety of media in diverse contexts. Along with strengthening my competencies in creating/designing digital media, I was able to explore new ways to integrate technological platforms in library instruction and educational modalities.
Fall 2016 Semester
LIS 640 | Organizing Library Collections
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This course led me to think about how library collections are organized, arranged, and described in order to enhance access to resources. Augmentation of access depends on clear, standardized methods of organization and this course allowed me to comprehend how various classification systems are incorporated into discovery tools.
Special Collections
LIS 688 | Special Collections
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The readings, projects, and concepts that I completed/reflected on throughout the course expanded my understanding of how special collections serve a critical function as information centers in many different communities. The class lead me to question the ethics behind the ownership and preservation of particular items and how heritage centers and large special collections repositories can collaborate to serve patrons with diverse needs. Visits to many different repositories led me to examine the administrative and managerial functions necessary in special collections sites.
Bibliotherapy
Fall 2015 Semester
Spring 2017 Semester
WGS 651 | Feminist Research Analysis
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The readings, assignments, and projects from this course required me to think critically about the concept of objectivity and the means by which feminist frameworks can be integrated into research practices. I grew in my ability to evaluate resources for research and improved my comprehension of theories that are seminal to feminist studies. Collaboration with classmates taught me to co-write papers and examine how cultural events continue to shape the sphere of academia.
LIS 656 | The Academic Library
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I learned through this course the roles that academic libraries can assume in their positionalities within the overall academic institution. The academic library, ideally serves as an information hub on college campuses and the course content led me to examine how academic libraries have evolved in their purposes over time, adhering to the changing needs of students.
LIS 690| Practicum: North Carolina Literary Map at UNCG's Special Collections and University Archives
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For the practicum, I worked at the Special Collections and University Archives at UNCG. I contributed to the North Carolina Literary Map which is a project in the archive that promotes the literary heritage of the state by highlighting the literature and authors affiliated with NC. My role in the Lit Map offered me a chance to create virtual literary walking tours which were a special function on the map that guides tourists through pertinent spaces in NC's literary history.
Summer 2017 Semester
SES 662 | Assistive Technology for Inclusive Learning and Education
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This course has led me to reconsider instructional methodologies and pedagogical approaches that best adhere to the preferred learning modalities of diverse students. In addition to exploring the concepts of Universal Design for Learning, I reflected on how different assistive technologies can aid learners in their access to seminal aspects of curricula.
LIS 691 | Independent Study: Oral History Graduate Internship at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
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My internship at the Archives of American Art allowed me practical experience in an archives space and to have collaborative exposure with a team of professional archivists in the field. While working primarily on the Keith Haring Oral History Project: Art in the AIDS Epidemic, l put into practice the theories I have learned in my courses about digitization and the best means to promote access to oral histories. The internship is an interdisciplinary exploration of how archival work and art intersect. The oral histories pertaining to the HIV/AIDS epidemic allowed me to explore gender and sexuality themes as well.
Professional Presentations
and Special Projects 2017
Professional Conference Presentations
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Presentations at professional conferences offered me opportunities to share my experiential knowledge and insights with professionals in the LIS field. The presentations taught me the importance of sharing projects with other individuals and being able to convey one's labor and intellectual property in a clear way.
The Randolph County Public Library
Internship
UNCG LIS Alternative Spring Break Project: Internship at The Randolph Room
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The LIS Alternative Spring Break Project placed me in The Randolph Room at The Randolph County Public Library. While there, I was able to be involved within a professional library environment. The experience led me to collaborate with a fellow student in the creation of a finding aid and I was able to explore promotion and outreach responsibilities in the library/archival setting by creating flyers and web content advertising a collection.
ERM 645 | Culturally Responsive Approaches to Research
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This course has led me to reconsider my own understanding of culture and how my own cultural positionality influences the type of scholarship that I engage in. The course offered an overview of cultural studies and provided research literature examining diverse modalities of researching/evaluating with a sensitivity to culture. I learned about feminist research paradigms and how different cultures construct their own epistemologies.
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PCS 610 | Conflict Transformation: Reconciliation and Healing
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This Peace and Conflict Studies Class led me to reflect on how the concepts of reconciliation and healing can transform and reframe various kinds of conflict--from personal conflict to global conflict influenced by governmental systems. The non-Western focus of the course helped me reconceptualize the differences between forgiveness and reconciliation and how these ideas remain pertinent to LGBTQIA+ persons.
Violence and Public Health
HEA 665 | Violence and Public Health
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This Public Health Course prompted me to comprehend a variety of different societal issues in ways that centered concepts of gender and sexuality. I explored instances of violence in society and traced how an understanding of these social issues can be impacted by a sensitivity to sexuality and gender. I focused heavily on LGBTQIA+ populations and how religion corresponds to violence enacted against this demographic.
WGS 530 | Critical Sexuality Studies and Queer Theory
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This course led me to profoundly rethink the theoretical discussions pertaining to queerness and queer sexuality. The theoretical approaches I read destabilized the monoliths of white queer discourse and white feminist discourse (in and out of academia) and bestowed visibility onto voices that are not privileged as gendered, racial, bodily, or 'human' subjects. The queer theories centered identities marked as 'other' within the already 'othered' LGBTQIA+ community.
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WGS 602 | Internship Seminar
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This seminar class helped me expound on the thoughts and feelings that were generated by my experience at Higher Ground. The class led me to think about neo-liberalism, the non-profit industrial complex, and feminist social justice trajectories, all the while applying these concepts to my internship site. The course prompted me to think about the role of art, in particular, in HIV/AIDS activism.
Higher Ground
WGS 601 | ​Internship at Higher Ground
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Higher Ground is a day treatment center in Greensboro, NC for individuals who are HIV+. The Higher Ground house offers a respite for HIV+ folks to escape the social stigma of HIV and engage in various therapies and communal fellowship. In my internship role, I facilitate art therapy, story therapy, and (occasionally) lead group therapies pertaining to HIV and alcohol/substance abuse recovery. I engage with the community and foster friendships with the individuals utilizing services at the house, helping them advocate for themselves and within the HIV/AIDS activist movement overall.
All images on this site are of my own original paintings and digital media.
CED 688 | Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse
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CED 688 | Youth in Crisis
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