President’s Award for Collaborative Research and Creative Work

During the 2016 spring semester, Dr. Sue Carter Wood, director of the rhetoric and writing doctoral program, led an archival research project that supports both education and the preservation of BGSU history.

In recognition of this effort, she received a President’s Award for Collaborative Research and Creative Work at the Faculty Excellence Awards April 13.

The award recognizes innovative research and creative work conducted by faculty members in collaboration with graduate students. The $5,000 award included $2,500 for continued collaborative research activities with BGSU graduate students and a $2,500 cash award.

Carter Wood and her graduate students were nominated for their archival research project that involved collaboration using archival research methods to compose alphabetic and visual histories and to digitize artifacts for an online exhibit. The exhibit is now published on the Wm. T. Jerome Library website as part of its BGSU Student Digital Gallery.

“Throughout this project, I learned a great deal about archival methodology in research, implications for digitizing archives and how to engage in collaborative research” wrote graduate student Danielle Donelson. “This project allowed my fellow doctoral students and me an opportunity to collaborate with the Special Collections Staff and to provide a public service to the campus community in digitizing archival exhibits.”

The project has also been presented at two conferences: the College English Association of Ohio spring 2016 conference and the Thomas R. Watson fall 2016 conference.

“One thing I greatly appreciated about Dr. Wood’s involvement with this project was her guiding us toward academic conferences where we could present our research,” wrote graduate student Kristin LaFollette. “As a first-year Ph.D. student at the time, I was new to conference presentations and how to submit, so I can’t thank Dr. Wood enough for introducing me to my first academic conference where I was able to present my archival research along with my classmates.”

Through the project, several students have found new research trajectories to follow as they grow in their careers.

“It is because of Dr. Wood’s support and encouragement that I continue to want to do archival research and now have the confidence to do so,” wrote graduate student Lauren Garskie.

Other students have continued to further develop the investigation that began in Carter Wood’s course.

“Dr. Wood provided guidance and encouragement through this project, challenging us to make connections to what was happening in rhetoric and composition at the same time,” wrote graduate student Sara Austin.

Throughout the project, students were actively engaged in the collaborative processes of researching and writing for publication. Students also saw the various realities of scholarly research, leading them to realizations that will better prepare them as future faculty members.

Carter Wood and several of the participants plan to collaborate on an article about this project that will focus on the enactment of feminist research methodologies and archival research methods in doctoral education in rhetoric through digital humanities projects.