Damiana Gibbons is a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a major in Literacy Studies and a minor in Composition and Rhetoric. Before continuing her studies, she taught as a Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Wyoming. She holds B.A.'s in English and English Education and an M.A. in English—Literary Studies. Her Master's thesis showed how the "Oprah" brand mimics an African-American trickster figure through Winfrey’s presence and absence in O: The Oprah Magazine and Oprah’s Book Club. (For a taste of this work, see The Oprah Phenomenon.)

She is currently working with a stellar research team headed by Dr. Erica Halverson exploring in how digital literacy is fostered through youth video production in organizations across the country. Her dissertation research focuses on media production, identity, and literacy. Using Critical Literacy, New Literacy Studies, and Multimodality perspectives, she examines the intersections of the visual, the spoken, the written, and the performed in youth video production using multimodal discourse analysis to uncover the various layers in the teaching of youth media production and in the products of the videos themselves. In studying youth media organizations who work with youth from non-dominant cultures, her work explores what is made possible for youth as well as what they take up as possible using new digital media.

For more information, check out her website.

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