Nicola Andrews
Nicky Andrews is the Open Education Library at Gleeson Library Geschke Center and the Subject Liaison for Sociology and Critical Diversity Studies. She is also a poet and the USF liasion for the OER for Social Justice grant; a multi-year project between Loyola Marymount University, St. Mary’s College, Santa Clara University, and USF with $1,533,300 in funding from the US Department of Education.
Tell us about your background, research interests, and how you arrived at USF.
Kia ora! I grew up in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand), and am a member of the Ngāti Paoa iwi. I have a Master of Library & Information Science from the University of Washington, and a Master of Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago. When I finished my librarianship degree, I did a two-year fellowship as an NCSU Libraries Fellow in North Carolina. When that concluded, I was looking to come back to the West Coast of the US, and USF impressed me with its commitment to social justice and ethical problem-solving. I’ve been here for five years now!
How do you hope your work as the Open Education Librarian can support the AAPI community on campus and beyond?
Open Education can encompass many things - including co-creating learning materials with students, working with faculty to publish without fees via our transformative agreements, and prioritizing zero-cost textbooks to help alleviate costs to students. I’m happy to help our students, staff, and faculty explore all of these things, and I think it would be wonderful if a class worked on an open textbook to highlight local AAPI achievements!
Beyond this campus, I’m the USF liaison for the OER for Social Justice grant; a multi-year project between Loyola Marymount University, St. Mary’s College, Santa Clara University, and USF with $1,533,300 in funding from the US Department of Education. We have four USF faculty teams working to create OER materials, including many folks who support the AAPI Center and APAS!
Can you share more about your work as a poet?
Sure, thanks for asking! I only started to write poetry a few years ago, but it has been a very rewarding experiment so far. Most of my work explores issues as a member of the Pacific Island diaspora, as well as Māori rights, language, and family. I’ve been very fortunate in this journey - I’ve published a few chapbooks and my debut full-length collection, Overseas Experience, is coming out with Āporo Press later this year.
For anyone looking to have a little more local art and literature in their life, I recommend checking out Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest AAPI arts organization in the US.