I am a historian by training, a musician by inclination, and a non-profit manager by profession.

Currently I am Project Manager, Data and Research at the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association, supporting PLA’s strategic data-related initiatives. I previously was Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow (2017-19) and Program Manager at the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), also a division of ALA. At ACRL I led the development of Project Outcome for Academic Libraries, an online toolkit designed to help libraries understand and share data on their users’ learning outcomes. In 2016-17 I was a member of the Research Faculty at the Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy. At University College Cork (UCC) in the 2015-16 academic year I was Head Tutor, a part-time lecturer and tutor in the School of History, and a post-doctoral researcher working to establish a Sound Archive. I also hold a MA in Historical Research from UCC and a BA in Irish Studies and History from Boston College.

I hold a PhD in History / Digital Arts & Humanities from University College Cork, Ireland (2015). My broad research and teaching interests cover a wide variety of subjects including oral history, digital humanities, migration, ethnicity, Irish traditional music, and the histories of modern Ireland, Britain, and America. My PhD research focused on oral histories of musicians who migrated from Ireland to Britain and America in the post-war era. A selection of my original interview recordings and related materials are available from the digital project I created, Voices of Irish Music & Migration. My interest in oral history has led me to serve as an active member of the Steering Committee of the Oral History Network of Ireland since 2015.

Follow me on Twitter @SaraGoek