Who I am as a researcher

In my second year as a PhD student of rhetoric and writing, I have developed an interest in place - physical, psychological, virtual, and beyond. Ever since I opened my first commonplace book from a crafty Victorian, I have been fascinated by where and how we create knowledge.

With this in mind, I am very interested in virtual spaces and visual rhetoric. I think that learning environments that go beyond the traditional classroom or the traditional hard-copy composition may be very powerful for writing students.

For my reserach class, I am interested in investigating ways visually enhanced artifacts and writing spaces might impact student writers. I am thinking of focusing on how well students use visuals in their work, how much most composition teachers emphasize visuals, and if the addition of visual elements enhances writing.