I’m Julia. I’m an artist, teacher, and researcher.

Welcome to my website!

I’ve held many positions across the artistic, literary, education, and library fields. Currently, I do research around libraries and information behavior in a variety of settings, and I teach on information science and library studies topics. I have a theatre and music background and am working on merging my performance work with my academic work by studying the information behavior of creative workers using qualitative and critical methods.

As a trained performer with a degree in musical theatre, I am involved in singing and music communities. I play piano and a little guitar. My true passion is singing, and as a trained singer, I regularly share my performances via benefit concerts and online.

In my librarianship, I frequently worked on topics related to information behavior, patron outreach, social justice and social work, public policy, and open education. I’m a methods expert in systematic and scoping reviews in the social sciences.

I also like to exercise, read, play Stardew Valley, cook vegetarian meals, camp and hike, and hang out with my husband (physicist Chris Dessert), and our cats, Waffles and Circe.

ORCiD
Research Gate
Google Scholar