Stories

During the 2019 College Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC) held March 12-16, senior English major Perla Luna '19 presented with Professor Cruz Medina on a panel related to research that she conducted as Medina's research assistant during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Perla presented alongside Medina and Enrique Reynoso from the University of Wisconsin- Platteville, and attended presentations as well as the NCTE/CCCC Latinx Caucus meeting. Perla’s travel was funded by the English Department Gift Fund; a Bannan Institute grant paid for Perla’s hourly wage as a research assistant.

The research Perla conducted with Medina looks at the publications of the Latinx Caucus, comparing rates of publication as well as impressions of publishing in the field of rhetoric and composition. The research contributes to larger conversations about diversity in curricula, syllabi, and publishing. It identifies arguments past scholars have made about the issue of representation and responds to these arguments with statistical and interview-based data derived from citations that Perla compiled through online research of CVs and professional websites, as well as from personal email correspondence with Latinx scholars in the field of rhetoric and composition.  

Perla’s research reflects the department's value of incorporating undergraduate students in academic research, drawing on a range of research methods including ethnographic interviews, surveys, and quantitative analysis. The research also speaks to the social justice values of the University because the issue of representation in academic publishing speaks to the question of whose knowledge is valued and how can we work to be more inclusive of traditionally marginalized populations.  Perla is a co-author with Medina of an article resulting from this research that will be published by the journal Rhetoric Review.