Feature Friday: Meet Our Graduate Student Assistant (Miracle Ogbor)
Posted March 19, 2021 in Feature Friday, JMU Libraries News
When you ask the library a question using our online chat service, you may be lucky enough to meet Miracle Ogbor, a graduate student pursuing a doctoral degree in Vocal Performance, Pedagogy and Literature at James Madison University. When she is not answering questions on our live chat, Miracle’s job as a graduate assistant in the Libraries is all about supporting our liaison librarians (dedicated librarians for each college at JMU) in creating resources for research and scholarship, teaching students how to find quality sources, and helping students and faculty with their subject-specific expertise.
At JMU Libraries, we offer Research Guides for nearly every subject taught at JMU, which direct students to the best resources and databases for research in a specific subject area. Miracle has not only used her experience as a student to help liaison librarians to create and restructure Research Guides in a variety of subject areas, but she has also used her music background to create a Music Education research guide!
We are honored that Miracle has chosen to work at JMU Libraries. She was one of four JMU graduate students to be awarded the AIM (Advancing Intelligent Minds) grant from The Graduate School. Learn more about Miracle’s path to JMU in the Graduate School’s news article: Miracle in the Spotlight.
Q&A with Miracle Ogbor
Q: Tell us about your dissertation in Vocal Performance!
A: My dissertation is an interdisciplinary project that will showcase the work of Nigerian classical music composer Dr. Ayo Oluranti and a version of the classical Nigerian folktale ÒMÒ ÀGBÈ TÓ TÍ DÍ ÓLÓRIN (The Farmer’s Daughter Becomes a Musician). This project, titled Decolonizing and Enriching the Opera World, is a presentation of the first ever Nigerian one woman opera based on the initial folktale of “The Farmer’s son becomes a Hunter,” but rewritten by my humble self as “the Farmer’s daughter becomes a Musician.” The story highlights some of the challenges faced by classical musicians and the stereotypes believed by non-musicians.
On April 11th at 8pm, I will be having my themed recital, which will showcase the music of Nigeria highlighting genres such as art songs, folk songs, concert songs and pop music. Anyone can watch the live performance or recording on Youtube.
Q: What excites you most about your work right now?
A: For a very long time, I haven’t done anything outside music so I’m always excited to work at the Libraries because it expands my horizons and allows me to make interconnections with other fields of study.
Q: What’s your favorite local restaurant or local attraction?
A: I can’t pick a favorite because my tastes tend to change and I like different places at different times. Right now, I like Flaming Grill for the variety of food and the mini hibachi place, I like Texas Roadhouse for the amazing steak and I love the colorado omelet at IHOP.
Q: What would you like everyone at JMU to know about you?
A: As rightly said by Arthur O’Shaughnessy “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.” I am a big dreamer and I have always and will continue to aspire to bring and effect change everywhere I go. I also believe that nothing good comes easy, so I dedicate time and effort to get the work done. I also support my dreams and hard work with prayers because I believe that with God all things are possible.