I spent my spring and summer semesters in 2018 working at the Keweenaw Research Center (KRC). My main job was writing project reports—actually, it was writing one project report. There was a two-year research effort about tank ice cleats that was wrapping up when I started the KRC, and I was given the final report for it. The job was a classic cubicle farm, reports-and-spreadsheets deal. Most of the work they do involves military contracts based on ground vehicle testing. Absolutely everything about the job was foreign to me. I’d never done real technical writing before, and I was dumped right into it with very little actual instruction; I only got a folder of information and the gist of the project. Because of that, though, it was one of the fastest learning experiences of my life.
Having a trial by fire like that as my first internship was amazing in terms of preparation for other jobs. Since I was thrown in with little direction, I had to make my own way, wading through the confusion about how the data was organized, interpreting all the raw scientific data, and gleaning what the engineers had neglected to mention in their briefings. All my work since then has been incredibly smooth in comparison—knowing how rocky a starting point can be gave me an appreciation for every bit of help I get.
The actual experience I gained from the job was hugely eye-opening, too. The way the KRC is run is very informal in some places, but mind-bogglingly procedural in others. The cognitive whiplash from switching between the two nearly snapped my neck. On top of that, there were a hundred little things every day that I had to learn, or at least become familiar with, like modeling software and weird physics concepts. I hadn’t really thought about whether I wanted to work as a technical writer in an engineering field, but I’m glad I tried it—I would never know whether I liked it if I hadn’t. I definitely learned more about my limits from this job.
Looking back on it, I think I would’ve liked my first internship to be a bit more relaxed, but sometimes getting burned is the best thing that can happen to you—you might just come out fireproof.
The Department of Humanities congratulates 
Anna K. Swartz, a graduate of Rhetoric, Theory & Culture, participated as an invited panelist at the 2018 Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy and Ethics Spring Symposium: “Held Against My Will: Conversations About Involuntary Commitment and Forced Treatment” at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law in Los Angeles, California on April 16.
Nancy Henaku, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the RTC program, has received one of three inaugural Feminist Research Grants awarded by the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. This will support her travel to archives for her dissertation research on the rhetoric of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the first female candidate for president of Ghana. The review committee “expressed great enthusiasm for [her] dissertation project, which is poised to bring important perspective from the global South and specifically from Ghana to ongoing research in transnational feminist rhetoric.”
Brilliant Books in Traverse City, recently interviewed Rhetoric, Theory and Culture PhD student, writer and poet Edzordzi Agbozo about his writing. Two of Agbozo’s poems appear in the spring 2018 issue of Northern Michigan’s premier literary journal, Dunes Review. See the full interview 
RTC PhD student Sarah Potter received a top paper award and presented the paper on the panel, Top Papers in the Communication Ethics, Activism, and Social Justice Interest Group at the Central States Communication Association Conference. The paper title is “Different Rights (in)Different Times: Rendering the Invisible Visible in a Comparative Iconographic Analysis of the Women’s Suffrage Parade of 1913 and the 2017 Women’s March on Washington.” She was also a panel member for the graduate student discussion session, “When the Experts Don’t Agree: Navigating Differences in Faculty Advice.” The conference was held April 5-8, 2018 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Humanities department will be hosting Professor Nicholas Mirzoeff (NYU). He’ll be giving a public lecture entitled “Ungovernable Aesthetics” in the MUB Ballroom on