Nicole Pagowsky, Ph.D. is Liaison Program Lead at the University of Arizona Libraries. Nicole’s specializations and research interests include library instruction programs, librarian labor and “value,” critical policy studies, and qualitative methods. Since 2015, she has been adjunct faculty with the College of InfoSci and teaches LIS 581: How to teach information literacy for librarians and educators.
Nicole completed her Ph.D. with InfoSci and graduated in Spring 2026. See this site’s PhdWork page for information about Nicole’s research and [coming soon] link to her dissertation. Nicole also holds an MLIS and an MS in Instructional Design.
Nicole is the 2021 recipient of the ACRL-IS Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award, recognizing her impactful contributions to the field.
Most recent news
Upcoming presentation with IASSIST QSSHDIG on April 23, 2026: Qualitative Wayfinding: Dissertation Reflections on Poststructural Analysis of Academic Library Value Discourse
Completed Ph.D. program in Spring 2026
Co-presented “Information Literacy Instruction in a Post-Liaison World (recorded July 22, 2025)” for The Ohio State University Libraries’ Teaching Information Literacy Workshop Series
Big Ten Academic Alliance keynote presentation available via repository: Orchestrating the critical: Library instruction programs and our labor (April 18, 2024)
College & Research Libraries special issue (September 2022) - guest editor; and author, Critique as Care: Disrupting Narratives of the One-Shot Instruction Model (Introduction to the special issue)
C&RL Guest Editorial, The Contested One-Shot: Deconstructing Power Structures to Imagine New Futures (May 1, 2021) ~ Article selected as an ALA-LIRT Top 20 Instruction Article for 2021 link