Just an FYI in case you or other graduate students are interested....

Workshop on Cultural Diversity and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Presented by Franny Howes and Michelle Șeref
Friday, April 20th, 10:00-11:30
GLC Conference Room C

Please join us for a workshop on the social relations of interdisciplinary collaboration. We will explore how different systems of power relations act as metaphors in the academy. The workshop will also examine interdisciplinary communication as a form of intercultural communication, and how cultural awareness can prepare scholars to collaborate and avoid misunderstanding.

This workshop is sponsored by the Diversity Scholars program of the Graduate School.

Please RSVP by contacting Franny Howes at fhowes@vt.edu.

About the Presenters:

Franny Howes is a PhD student in Rhetoric and Writing in Virginia Tech’s Department of English. Her research focuses on visual rhetoric, the rhetorical study of comics, and decolonial feminist theory and methodology. In addition to her graduate work, she spent a summer as an embedded humanist in the MSU Digital Evolution Lab, and is a proud alumnus of the AmeriCorps VISTA program. Her comics can be found on the web at osiigs.com.

Michelle Șeref is a PhD student in Rhetoric and Writing at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on rhetoric as the study of causes and remedies of misunderstanding. She looks at cultural and audience analysis as central components for preparation in communication. Michelle works in the Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society and has taught in the Engineering Communications Program. She currently works on the NIH-funded interdisciplinary Digging into Data research project. Michelle has a PhD in Operations Management and a Masters in Industrial Engineering.