About

Emily holds a doctorate in Communication & Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She received her masters in Education, Culture & Society from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. Her research interests and professional experiences reside mainly in the fields of critical media literacy, multimodal storytelling, and antiracist pedagogies and identity work.
Emily is particularly interested in the impact that mass media and popular culture images and messages can have on girls (particularly during adolescent identity development), and how to subsequently empower girls to use their voices and create their own media texts to speak back to the socially constructed representations and expectations of “beauty,” “success,” “happiness,” etc. that they confront on a daily basis. Emily has also become increasingly interested in hip-hop pedagogy, antiracist education, social identity work, and raising awareness and creating multiracial alliances in schools among students and teachers.
She is passionate about working with educators on how to deliver more culturally relevant and socially just pedagogy by incorporating more popular culture texts and media artifacts into classroom activities and discussions as a way to foster greater criticality and more effective/productive ways of talking about issues of race, diversity, gender, and media literacy among 21st century teachers and learners.
Hi Emily, I am really enjoying your blog. I am researching “hip hop + digital storytelling” for a graduate course. I am wondering if you could recommend any scholarly articles or examples of digital stories related to hip hop history, culture, pedagogy, etc.? Thank you for any ideas! Susan in Denver, @ennasuite
Emily, I love your blog. I teach middle school social studies in a Washington, DC public school and share a lot of your interests/ideals. Have you ever heard of “Facing History and Ourselves”? Great teaching resource!
Hey Kelly!
Thanks so much for checking my blog out, I really appreciate it! I really like “Facing History,” they have some excellent resources and the site is so comprehensive. If you come across any other great resources (or if you’re looking for some recommendations for resources) please get in touch! You can find me here or on twitter @emilybailin