Tara Gold

Background

About Tara Gold

Experienced education professional with a demonstrated history of working in K-12 schools and higher education. I graduated in 2020 with my Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) focused in Culture, Curriculum, and Change from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My research focused on new literacies in online contexts, and my dissertation is an ethnographic exploration of BookTube, an affinity space for books on YouTube. My research interests include young adult literature, English education, applications of feminist theory, digital ethnography, adolescent literacy, and social justice pedagogies. I have eight years of K-12 classroom teaching experience, including five years as a middle and high school media coordinator. As a media coordinator, I revitalized my library by weeding our volume collection and securing over to add new books, class sets, database and digital media subscriptions, and technology hardware to our library. I worked closely with teachers across all subject areas and grade levels to teach media literacy lesson and research projects through the library. In addition, I ran multiple clubs for students literacy-based clubs for students and developed ongoing literacy and technology staff development for teachers. At the university level, I have applied my pedagogical experience and knowledge to the development of pre-service teachers and media coordinators. I have four years of college-level teaching experience. I have worked as a student teacher supervisor and have served as instructor for courses in young adult literature, social justice in education, research methodologies, and English methods. In my position as a teaching assistant for the Preparing International Teaching Assistants Program (PITAP), I supported international teaching assistants through developing pedagogical skills and their cross-cultural awareness of American universities. I am currently seeking employment in areas related to education and libraries.