IV. Current Research
I. Knowledge (Writing) Transfer and “Threshold Concepts”
Primary Investigator: Using Threshold Concepts to Study Transfer and Graduate Students’ Perceptions on Writing Across Their Academic and Workplace Settings
2010-2011 University of California Santa Barbara; 2011-2012. Northern Arizona University
Following the lead of Bass (2009) and Robertson (2011), Linda Adler-Kassner, John Majewski and I have worked, with a recent CCCC presentation (2012) and a Composition Forum (2012) article, to help introduce and advance threshold concepts (Meyer and Land, 2006) as a flexible conceptual and research heuristic through which to study and describe the nature of transfer in writing.
I am currently using the threshold concept literature on liminality to identify and describe the tacit and discursive schemas-for-writing that graduate students in my “Advanced Professional Writing” class, who also self-identify as working professionals, perceive, describe, or “carry” between their academic and workplace settings.
Recent Transfer & Threshold Concept Presentations/Publications:
“Complicating “transfer” articulating thresholds for writing and learning across disciplines.” College Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC). St. Louis, Missouri, March 21st-24th, 2012.
[in press] Koshnick, D. Adler-Kassner, L., Majewski, J. (2012). Threshold Concepts, Learning, and Movement: A Case Study in Two General Education Courses. Composition Forum (special issue on transfer). (Summer, 2012) -. –.
II. Tracking the “Acoustic Dimension” of Prominent Writing Theorists and Their Texts
Dissertation:
Cmte Charles Bazerman, Linda Adler-Kassner, Karen Lunsford
Title Using citations to amplify the acoustic dimensions of prominent writing theorists and their texts across composition-rhetoric
Working between bibliometrics and theories in the sociology of knowledge, this research demonstrates a method for aggregating and studying citations in order to both quantitatively capture and qualitatively describe significant patterns in the uses of prominent writing theorists and their books over time. Realized specifically as a tool for composition studies, this approach expands our ability to reflexively monitor and appreciate the manner in which a rare pantheon of highly cited authors and their texts have “acoustic dimensions” that continue to influence knowledge making and breaking across the field. Given the results that this kind of research produces, we can better take advantage of the leverage that these “knowledge assets” represent in order to be more informed and convincing participants in the discourse communities through which we, collectively, act to advance knowledge.
Adapting a portion of my dissertation results for a larger collaborative project, I recently published “James Moffett’s Legacy in The English Journal” in the centennial edition of The English Journal with colleagues Miles Myers (Bay Area Writing Project) and Elizabeth Spalding (University of Nevada Las Vegas). In addition, I am currently revising my dissertation’s methodology chapter for submission to Research in the Teaching of English.
Recent Associated Presentations/Publications:
Koshnick, D., Spalding, L., & Myers, M. (January, 2012). James Moffett’s Legacy in The English Journal. The English Journal (centennial edition). 101 (3), p. 26-33.
“Making a publication mean something: Using longitudinal citation data to qualitatively study the role(s) that a book has played in the history of a field.” Writing Research Across Borders II (WRAB) Conference. George Mason University, Washington D.C. February, 2011.
“Making use of citation data for historical research in composition studies.” College, Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC). Louisville, Kentucky. March, 18th, 2010.
III. Developing a Campus-Wide Internship Clearinghouse, Northern Arizona University
As a small, but diverse consortium at Northern Arizona University, we are currently in the process of contacting all stakeholders on the NAU campus who are responsible for coordinating, disseminating, and maintaining information on available internships for graduate and undergraduate students. There are two of us from the English Department who started this consortium because, after a review of current web-pages across the NAU campus, it was clear that the information available to students who were potentially interested in internships was haphazardly organized, that departmental web-pages dedicated to providing such information were often out of date, contained minimal information, and generally did not address students, nor potential cooperating local businesses directly.
We are in the planning stages, working with a website engineer and meeting soon with key stakeholders to realize and develop a prominent and intuitively searchable website dedicated to more intentionally coordinating, providing information on, and advertising available internships across the campus setting.
Recent Associated Presentations/Publications:
“On getting buy-in from campus stakeholders for starting a campus-wide internship clearinghouse.” Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA). Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 21st, 2012.
