Author: Sweta Gyanu Baniya, Ph.D.

Technical and Professional Communication and Comparative Rhetorics

As an international student, I think I have worked really hard to create space in the field for me as well as the underrepresented communities. To continue represent these communities, I aim to do comparative rhetorics work in technical and professional communication (TPC). There are lots of literature on Comparative Rhetorics  and TPC separately; however, there are very less scholarships that combine these two sects. For exploring the emerging and contemporary rhetorical practices of global communities in the world, I believe comparative rhetorics and TPC scholars should work together. Towards merging comparative rhetorics and TPC, my dissertation project studies two different disaster-affected communities and compares their emergent digital composition, communication, and rhetorical practices. The project has two different cultural locations: the digital space and the transnational theorization of the digital space. However, disaster and digital spaces are interlinked together where the transnational communication emerges.  I believe by bringing together comparative rhetorics and TPC, I will be able to theorize emergent transnational communication in the field of TPC that will help me articulate the rhetoric of disaster in transnational contexts and helping in planning future global networked actions.

Multidisciplinary Research Work and Publication

Since August 2017, I have been working as a Research Assistant for “Polytechnic Integrated Freshman Year Research” implemented by Purdue’s Polytechnic Institute. This empirical research integrates three courses English, Communication, and Design thinking for all incoming Freshmen of the Polytechnic Institute. This research aims at finding out how the intersections of humanities and technology during the freshmen year will help students develop better rhetorical understanding of the real world like the corporate world, social world, political world. The multi-disciplinary aspect of the research interested me and thus investing time on this project has helped me develop and grow as a researcher. Having worked for nearly two years now, we have few joint publications and some publications are under review with Dr. Nathan Mentzer, Dr. Amelia Chelsey other colleagues. This research experience has made me learn and explore innovative ways of forging a diverse partnership via writing and research with a multidisciplinary team. With this research, I have been trained as an empirical research methods as well as administrative and logistics work behind implementing integrated programs by bringing together three different departments. I believe this unique experience integrated research will help me during the job market time.

Service Learning

My teaching pedagogy is based on service learning and community engagement via technical / professional writing. I would like to implement this pedagogy when I become junior faculty member. I believe this pedagogy will help me to establish partnership between the university and the community, foster deeper connections among the students and the community members, and push my teaching outside the walls of my classroom to reach out to underrepresented populations locally and globally. For past two semesters, my business writing course’s theme is multicultural communication, service learning, and global social justice. Materializing these themes in my class have made my pedagogy to evolve to serve the current university students needs and requirements. This pedagogy allows me to help students develop collaborative work as well as critical thinking in students to serve the national and international community. Within this course, students engage directly with the community by applying their knowledge of rhetoric, writing, and community service for social justice.