Craig Nielsen, Research Assistant
Craig Nielsen (MLIS) is an Open Educational Resources and Research Librarian at Borough of Manhattan Community College and a Research Assistant on the College Fluency Capacity Building grant. At BMCC he assists in building up the Open Pedagogy ecosystem, particularly through conducting workshops and tutorials in audio editing techniques. His scholarly interests include transnational feminist theory, histories and presents of Third World popular movements and non-capitalist state forms, and political ecology. Informed by these approaches, Craig’s LIS orientation foregrounds decolonial knowledge-organizational alternatives that challenge Eurocentric notions of global “information inequality” and elitist notions of “information deficiency.” He is excited to bring his critical lens to this research into college fluency initiatives.
Elmira Jangjou, Analyst
Elmira Jangjou is an analyst on the Libraries, Scholarly Communication, and Museums team at Ithaka S+R. Prior to working with Ithaka S+R, she completed her doctoral studies in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies at the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on basic needs insecurity (BNI), including food and housing insecurities, in higher education. For her dissertation, she investigated the often-overlooked non-US citizen students’ experiences with BNI, the barriers to their basic needs security, and their help-seeking behaviors to cope with the related issues. Her work is driven by a commitment to fostering an inclusive and equitable educational environment for all students, ensuring that they have the necessary support to thrive academically and personally.
Deirdre Harkins, Analyst
Deirdre Harkins is an analyst on the Libraries, Scholarly Communication, and Museums team at Ithaka S+R. Deirdre previously worked alongside the LSCM team as the inaugural research and data fellow for the Black Trustees Alliance for Art Museums (BTA), focusing on the Art Museum Trustee Survey, and other museum-related projects. Her overall research interests revolve primarily around race/ethnicity, identity, and DEI initiatives. She is passionate about analyzing the representation of marginalized groups throughout history.
