Question: Give an example of how you have advocated for graduate student needs and experiences on your campus or in your work.

This is Kelly Moreland's headshot. Kelly sits in front of a book shelf in an office. She is wearing a pink cardigan over a grey t-shirt.

Kelly Moreland: As a graduate student I thrive in professional situations where graduate student voices are heard and celebrated, and where graduate student contributions are recognized. I am particularly committed to advancing opportunities for graduate students in my various roles at Bowling Green State University. As president of our graduate student chapter of Rhetoric Society of America (RSA), I co-coordinated our fifth annual graduate student conference, hosted a graduate student reading and discussion series, and am promoting our first spring colloquium. These events have created additional opportunities for our graduate students to become involved at the institutional level, promoting our efforts toward community building. I have worked in similar capacities to promote graduate student professional development as assistant director of BGSU’s first-year writing program, where I mentor graduate teaching associates at all levels of experience, including co-facilitating two sections of our composition practicum. I also promoted graduate student attendance at our visiting speaker series, where we hosted Elizabeth Wardle (January 2017) and Asao Inoue (February 2018). Furthermore, in my own research I rely on feminist methodologies to promote graduate student agency. For my dissertation project, for example, I am using video technology to ensure my graduate student co-researcher participants have their own voice in my study. Through these efforts I have helped to sustain a thriving writing community at BGSU where graduate students are afforded several on-campus opportunities for professional development. I would love to work toward these efforts on a larger scale as a member of WPA-GO’s Graduate Committee.