Question: How would your studies and / or your professional experience advance the mission of WPA-GO? The mission statement may be found here (external web page link).

A headshot of Ashanka Kumari. In the picture, she is wearing a beige cardigan and a black top with flowers on it, and she is smiling in front of a white background.

Ashanka Kumari: To begin, I lead and participate actively in a few different spaces that serve graduate students in my department and campus communities. I am currently a co-president of our English Graduate Organization, Peer Mentor Coordinator for our department, and have served as an officer of the University’s Multicultural Association for Graduate Students. I also serve as a Graduate Student Ambassador for my institution. Along with these commitments to graduate students, my dissertation project focuses on first-generation (to college) doctoral students in Rhetoric and Composition and the ways they navigate and negotiate graduate study with their lives. A first-generation student and child of immigrants who identifies as Indian-American myself, I am particularly cognizant of how our identities and intersectionalities impact our experiences. These experiences together position me well to build on WPA-GO’s mission for building and working toward more inclusive and welcoming communities.