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Abstract
This article describes graduate mentorship experiences at the Writing, Information, and Digital Experience (WIDE) research center at Michigan State University and offers a stance on graduate student mentorship. It describes WIDE’s mentorship model as feminist and inclusive and as a means to invite researchers with different backgrounds to engage in knowledge-making activities and collaborate on projects. Additionally, the article explains how WIDE enables growth for its researchers, teachers, and leaders. To illustrate these ideas, the authors provide multiple perspectives across faculty mentors, former graduate students, and current graduate students in order to discuss how WIDE researchers practice mentorship and how this mentorship prepares students for future work as scholars and researchers. Finally, the article suggests ways other research centers can adapt WIDE’s approach to their own institutional context.
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Author Biographies
Heather Noel Turner is a PhD candidate in the Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures department at Michigan State University, where she teaches in the professional Writing Program, and works as a ux consultant/project manager for the Writing, Information, and Digital Experience (WIDE) Research Center. Inside the university, her research focuses on research design, methods, and social justice in technical communication. Outside the university, she advocates for users by designing documents for nonprofit organizations.
Minh-Tam Nguyen is a currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures at Michigan State University where she focuses on issues of user resistance in technical communication, user experience, and information architecture. She has taught sections of first year writing and served as a graduate research assistant at the Writing, Information, and Digital Experiences (WIDE) Research Center.
Beth Keller is an assistant professor of English in the Department of English and Linguistics, at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne where she teaches courses on professional writing and technical communication. Her research interests are in mentoring as a rhetorical practice, workplace writing, and learning theory.
Donnie Johnson Sackey (PhD, Michigan State University) is an assistant professor of English at Wayne State University. He is a senior researcher with Detroit Integrated Vision for Environmental Research through Science and Engagement (DoVERSE). His research centers on the dynamics of environmental public policy deliberation, environmental justice, and environmental cultural history. He is currently a co-investigator on a grant funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to perform risk communication work around the lead and legionella contamination crisis in the municipal water system in Flint, MI.
Jim Ridolfo is an associate professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky. His work focuses on the intersection of rhetorical theory and digital technology.
Stacey Pigg is an assistant professor of English and associate director of professional writing at North Carolina State University, where she is a core faculty member in the CRDM PhD program. Her research at the intersections of digital rhetoric and professional communication has appeared in journals such as College Composition and Communication, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Written Communication, and Technical Communication and she received the 2015 Nell Ann Pickett Award for best article in Technical Communication Quarterly. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in rhetoric, digital writing, and professional communication.
Benjamin Lauren is an assistant professor of Experience Architecture at Michigan State University in the department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures. He is a WIDE researcher, the Book Editor and the Podcast Series editor at Communication Design Quarterly. His recent work has been published by Technical Communication, Transactions on Professional Communication, and Computers and Composition. His book, tentatively titled Communicating Project Management: A Participatory Rhetoric for Development Teams, is currently under contract with Routledge's ATTW series.
Liza Potts is an associate professor in the department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University where she is the director of WIDE Research Center and the director and co-founder of the Experience Architecture program. Her research interests include digital rhetoric, social user experience, and participatory culture.
Bill Hart-Davidson (PhD, Purdue University, 1999) is an associate professor of Rhetoric and Writing at Michigan State University and associate dean of Graduate Education in the College of Arts & Letters. He is a senior researcher in the Writing, Information, and Digital Experience (WIDE) Research Center. Bill's research interests lie at the intersection of Technical Communication and User Experience, and he has published more than fifty peer reviewed articles and chapters in such areas as visualizing knowledge work processes, information and user experience design, and computational rhetoric.
Jeff Grabill serves as the associate provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. He is a professor of Rhetoric and Professional Writing. His research focuses on how digital writing is associated with citizenship and learning, and that work has been located in community contexts, in museums, and in classrooms at both the K-12 and university levels. In his role as associate provost, he is responsible for guiding the development of technology-enhanced instruction on campus via his role as Director of the Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology and his leadership of teaching professional development through the Academic Advancement Network.
