Welcome to the 2024 Celebration of Student Writing at Indiana University East!
This annual publication presents over 60 original works created for Indiana University East courses from the 2022-2023 academic year, each nominated by a faculty member. We received over 175 nominations from faculty members in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Education, Business, and Humanities and Social Sciences. Across the curriculum, professors are appreciating and remembering the writing of their students! This is worth celebrating. If you are a student writer at IU East, welcome and congratulations: this collection is all about you!
In these digital pages, you student writers do a lot of different things! You analyze the literacy practices of your communities, be it your places of work (Aaron Frazeur, Nichole Portin, Katie Raines) or the clubs you have joined for fun (Tabetha Glomb, Jerrica Miles, Laura Urbin) or even your families (Andrew Martin). You offer poetry and stories (Brooke Briner, Shannon Brooks, Adam Bunnell, Katherine Hodgson, Samantha Manlove, Gretchen Moffett, Lindsay Osborn, Mersadie Pittsenbarger, and Scott Wade). You reflect on your learning (Adam Haynes, Deja James, Seth Howard). You participate in simulations (Eva Hicks) and class discussions (Jessica Adcock, Angela Bonagura). You make arguments about everything from Harry Potter (Taylor Lockhart, Hailey Crum, Lily Crews, and others!) to Taylor Swift (Bryan Kirby), from educational policy (Kristen Paphitis) to underage drinking (Lauren Hageman). And those of you in graduate courses make plans for your own teaching, demonstrating the ripples of learning and teaching that radiate out from the IU East classroom (Jennifer Novak, Kaitlin Uebelhor).
As readers of the Pressbook, we can learn from each other. We can learn more about the community of Richmond, Indiana, whether through Jamie Andrews’s portrait project about the queer experience in rural Indiana, or Mylan Nocton’s encyclopedia entry on the history of Gennett Records, or Todd Stewart’s encyclopedia entry on activist James Chaney. We can also learn about communities beyond Richmond through writers like Alyssa Hodge, who investigates policing alternatives in Atlanta, Georgia. We can learn about complex ideas from the fields of economics (Alyssa Luebbering), criminal justice (Angela Bonagura, Montana Washel), communication (Brittany Mika), and literacy studies (Brooke Lewis). In some cases, our learning is aided by infographics, podcasts, and videos that were created to translate complex topics for a public audience (Claire Coddington & Liz Subblefield, Madison Lakes, Josalyn Lewis & Megan Hemp, and Vincent Narcisse).
We can also learn from our keynote, Dr. Phil Plait. If you are in Richmond, Indiana, you know that one of the big things happening in 2024 is the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. We invited Dr. Plait to campus to provide context for total solar eclipses—why they occur, why they are so special, and how they work—and also to talk about his long career writing about science for a public audience. These talks can be accessed through the Keynote section of this Pressbook. Each contributor to our Pressbook will receive a signed copy of Dr. Plait’s latest book Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe, which is entertaining and informative reading for anyone who wants to marvel at the awesomeness of outer space.
A mentor in my life used to call writing “the coin of the realm” in academia—and we can see that coin flashing brilliantly in the light of this pressbook. If you are a student writer who contributed to this book, congratulations! It’s a pleasure and a delight to see your ideas presented so strongly and clearly, and in such a public space, to see the kind words from your first readers—your teachers—moved from the margins of the papers to the introductions to your publications. As you continue at IU East and beyond, I hope that you will continue to use writing as a way of telling your stories, supporting your positions, analyzing your practices, and making your plans.
Many thanks to Dean Daren Snider of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, who has believed in this event from the beginning and continues to support it in a big way. Thanks to Dean Karen Clark of the School of Nursing, Dean Markus Pomper of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Dean Denise Smith of the Business School: your support makes this event possible. Thanks also to the Library Foundation and Mindful Explorations for the ongoing support. Thanks to fellow editor, Kristie Marcum, and to the many people who helped edit this text, including Rena Holcomb, Jackie Kauza, Sharon Lucero, Laverne Nishihara, Tanya Perkins, and Margaret Thomas Evans. Thanks to the marketing and events team. And thanks most of all to the students who continue to write for us, every day, and who make this community possible.
Enjoy the 2024 IU Celebration of Student Writing Pressbook!