About me

I am a PhD Candidate in the University of Arizona College of Information Science, with an interdisciplinary minor in Social, Cultural, & Critical Theory (SCCT). Expected graduation date is Spring 2026, with dissertation defense scheduled for April.

Research interests

Being an academic librarian for over 15 years, and continuing to work full-time while completing my PhD work, I am interested in studying perceptions, impact, and valuation of academic library labor through various critical and interdisciplinary lenses. From my specialization as a library educator, I examine material impacts on the doubly feminized and devalued labor of library instruction.

Dissertation research

Title: Materializations of the value gaze: A poststructural analysis of academic library instruction value discourse in policy and practice

Abstract: This study problematizes academic library value dominant discourse–or, the advised obligation toward demonstrating the library’s impact to campus using audit practices–through a Foucauldian-influenced poststructural analysis. Calls to demonstrate library value intensified with the commissioned 2010 Value of Academic Libraries (VAL) Report published by the Association of College & Research Libraries. Audit has been installed in higher education to operationalize divestment from public goods as reinforced by discourses of responsibilization and deficit. As a manifestation of audit culture, I position Kraus’ (2023) notion of the fantasy economy as a primary theoretical framework, which can be understood as ideological reframing of the disenfranchised labor market as the fault and responsibility of the education system. 

In alignment with such neoliberal reform projects, VAL’s rationalizing practices naturalize inevitability and urgency, making critique virtually unsayable and imagining otherwise consequently unrealized, which calls for problematization. The following research questions guide this inquiry: (1) How does library value discourse materialize in the field through policies & practices? (2) Do value policy artifacts produce disciplining effects on the design and implementation of library instruction programs? and (3) What is the network(s) of institutions, individuals, practices, and policies that govern library valuation projects? Applying Bacchi’s “What is the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) policy discourse analysis framework, empirical analysis of a 21-document corpus and nine practitioner interviews shows that VAL’s purported advocacy remains in the potential rather than the actual, and runs counter to practitioner experiences of material outcomes. 

Within the doubly-feminized subfield of academic library instruction, value discourse materializes in policy and practice through what I term the “value gaze”–a panoptic enterprise of seeking substantiations of value for audit, while also perpetually self-surveilling as anticipatory monitoring. VAL dominant discourse intertwines objectives from the fantasy economy into its rationalizing discourse, and rather than problematizing this power/knowledge configuration, VAL points to the library/librarians as not aligning to VAL’s moral imperatives. Going beyond particular approaches to assessment, this is a study on how calls for demonstrating value that uncritically reproduce reform in fact reinforce the very sociopolitical structures that work against advocacy efforts. Problematization of the dominant discourse and its disarmament of critique can offer the field an opportunity to engage in self-study on the approach to understanding value and how these projects can better materially advocate for workers.

Related presentations, publications, or awards:

(Upcoming) Presenting for the IASSIST QSSHDIG series, “Behind the scenes of qualitative data analysis” in April 2026

Title - Qualitative wayfinding: Dissertation reflections on poststructural analysis of academic library value discourse

Description - Qualitative research is flexible and allows the researcher to deeply engage with the context and nuance of their data. However, for many qualitative methodologies and methods, there is little guidance and the researcher can feel lost. The presenter for this session has used the qualitative methodology of poststructural discourse analysis for her dissertation research on “library value” discourse in academic libraries. Foucault (1972) essentially states that the work of poststructural discourse analysis is uncomfortable, and the researcher will not get reassurance or confirmation of success. In this session, the presenter will affirmatively attest to this experience and will share her journey of wayfinding through a confusing and exciting foray into poststructural methodologies. Using Taguette, Zotero, and Google docs in combination for data analysis, the presenter will also reflect on how our QDA technology can structure our thinking and how to consider these limitations. Additionally, she will share her thought process on using pseudonyms and what considerations should be wrapped up within insider expertise for studying marginalized professional fields.

(Past) Selected as a recipient of the annual SCCT Research Award, I presented my current work at the Graduate College’s Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs (GIDP) Research Showcase in December 2022 with a poster (“Problematizing the valuation of academic librarianship through the lens of the one-shot instruction model”) stemming from my work with the College & Research Libraries special issue on one-shots.