A Queer Role Model on Campus

The awards are presented annually to four works that “best make queer interventions into the study of composition and rhetoric.” The selection committee noted, “Meticulously researched, Bacibianco’s work elegantly blends a personal narrative of recovery with scholarship.” Bacibianco’s dissertation focused on the overlapping research of queer literature and addiction. Her May 2021 graduation signified the culmination of a long-running relationship with the University.  

Bacibianco’s dissertation speaks on her own experiences of addiction and recovery. While drafting her dissertation, she created the Voices from Rock Bottom podcast to gain qualitative data. Voices from Rock Bottom is a community-based digital storytelling project on alcoholism, addiction, and recovery in the LGBTQIA+ community. The podcast is a space that allows the queer community of Staten Island to share their stories and tackle the intersectionalities of addiction and queerness. 

As a doctoral fellow, Bacibianco helped develop and run the English Department Blog from 2015 to 2017.  Also, she taught several courses and made her courses LGBTQIA+, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming Safe Zones. An advocate for her community, Dr. Bacibianco served as an advisor for Spectrum and spearheaded the Pronouns Guide for St. John’s faculty and staff. 

After completing her B.A. in English from St. John’s in 2008, Bacibianco went on to obtain two master's degrees from the City University of New York and the College of Staten Island. While completing her graduate degrees, Bacibianco remained in contact with the English faculty.  When she returned to St. John’s to pursue her doctorate, it felt like a call back home. Bacibianco shared that what brought her back to St. John’s was the faculty and all the support they showed her both as a student and as a graduate.  

Congratulations on this achievement, Dr. Bacibianco!