About
I am a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am a dissertator in Literacy Studies, studying under Dr. Erica Halverson.
I have always been obsessed with media and looking for ways to work it into my academic life. As a student, I looked for ways to add media to my assignments. When I was in high school, I talked my way into presenting a multi-media presentation (although I would never have called it this) of Monty Python skits in lieu of an essay. As an education student, for my final project of a semester’s worth of lesson plans, I presented them in the form of a TV Guide. My Master’s thesis was about Oprah’s Book Club and her magazine. I revised the chapter on Oprah’s Panopticon, and it is pubished in an anthology entitled The Oprah Phenomenon. To read this chapter, click here.
And, even in my teaching, I used media as a way to engage my students. In grad school for my Master’s, as soon as I could plan my own Freshman Comp class, I blended media literacy with freshman writing, something I continued when I taught as a Lecturer. When I taught high school freshman, we would create impromptu plays out of short stories to help my struggling readers make it through them or I would bring in Spongebob Squarepants to teach plot diagramming.
Now, as a I complete my Ph.d. degree, I study how young people make movies about their lives in on non-profit organizations around the country. I am thankful that I am allowed into the spaces of these youth as they learn not only media literacy but also critical thinking and life skills and as they begin to navigate being young people of color or of poverty. It’s quite an honor. And, a thrill.
Contact Info
The easiest way to reach me is by email: ddgibbons@wisc.edu
