Research Projects

 

MA Research

 

My dissertation focuses on the meta-genre of commercial college application essay guides – how they construct the rhetorical situation of the college essay and the linguistic ‘moves’ they teach students to enact in an essay – with attention to the sociopolitics of identity formation. Other research projects in my MA have included an analysis of discourses of love and passion in career advice articles and a critique of the Wall Street Journal‘s coverage of race-based affirmative action in higher education.

 

Senior Thesis

 

For my Comparative History of Ideas major, I wrote a thesis advised by Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Jason Johnson, Ph.D. titled “Student for Sale: Thinking Critically about Meta-Genre and the Pedagogical Effects of the U.S. College Application Essay.” I presented a working copy of this thesis at the University of Washington on March 10, 2015 and completed the project in June of 2015.

 

Speak Your Languages

 

From January 2015 to June 2015, I worked with the University of Washington’s Dr. Julia Deak Sandler on a study of heritage language development through interpretation and translation. Employing ethnographic methods, we investigated the long-term effects of a vocational program in Washington State that teaches interpretation and translation to heritage speakers, all of whom were bilingual and many of whom had already been involved in language brokering for their families.  Through interviews, observations, and an analysis of the program’s curricular components, we worked to discern how the program impacts students’ interpreting skills, language awareness, motivation to pursue further study, and employment opportunities following graduation.

 

Presentations

 

9th International Conference of the LSP Unit at Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza din Iasi

 

On May 14, 2016, I delivered a plenary presentation titled, “Discourses on ‘Terrorism’: Critically Situating Language Practices,” at the 9th International Conference of the LSP Unit at Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza din Iasi. The presentation blended affect theory and discourse studies to show how the United States’ discursive constructions of “terrorists”/“terrorism” and associated emotions are the socially and politically mediated effect of histories of contact between bodies, objects, and signs.

 

Fulbright Think Tank “Promoting American Values: Diversity in the English Class”

 

On February 18, 2016 I delivered a presentation titled “Working Towards a Translingual Model of English Teaching” at the Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission Think Tank in Bucharest, Romania. More information about the event is available here.

 

Western States Communication Association Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference

 

On February 21st, 2015, I presented a paper on the Rhetoric and Communication Panel at the Western States Communication Association Undergraduate Scholars Research Conference in Spokane, Washington.  The paper was written for my Comparative History of Ideas Junior Colloquium while I was studying abroad in Prague during the Autumn of 2014, and was entitled “Walking Through History: Spatial Rhetoric in the Central and Eastern European Post-museum.”