My research passions

I am drawn to the classroom. Largely speaking, I would like my research to have some sort of impact on students. I think citation is a process that seems arbitrary to most students. Before entering a discourse community, I think citation is largely viewed as a grading mechanism—a place to mark down a student if she places the period inside of the parenthesis.

I am passionate about learning more about how citation is practiced and valued outside of the academy. In other words, I am interested in how and why people write in spaces where they do not have to. In those spaces, I am curious about how they view ownership, authorship, and attribution.

Below gets a little rant-y. And it's also greatly inspired by Rebecca Moore Howard's great talk on Friday. Read if you dare.

In addition to reading great scholarship in authorship studies, my interest in this area stems from prior research befuddlement, especially when thinking back to my early experiences with research. In these experiences, I looked at a research paper as a task of chunking in bits of information to meet requirements—page length minimums, citation stipulations, source guidelines, and so forth. I did not do research to be engaged in a topic. And why would I? I did it for a grade.  I'm interested in ways we can disrupt that.