As the inaugural Karen L. Gillmor Ph.D. Endowed Professor in Professional and Public Writing at Michigan State University, Kristin Arola, an innovative scholar and researcher, is not only teaching students persuasive and effective writing skills, she also is showing them how to connect and make sense of their culture through their writing.
“To have been selected to serve in this position was so validating in the sense that Michigan State and a donor would see writing as important in its own right,” Arola said. “Often, we take writing as a given. We ask students to write a research paper and we forget that writing is a practice that doesn’t come naturally and needs to be taught.”
The position, created in 2019 through the generosity of MSU graduate and former Ohio State Senator Karen Gillmor, supports student excellence in professional and public writing by recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty. Arola, an Associate Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, transitioned into the role this year.
“I am thankful for Karen Gillmor’s recognition of the importance of writing and her contributions to Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures and to the College,” said Dànielle Nicole DeVoss, Chairperson of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures. “Kristin is an exceptional faculty member — indeed, ideal — to honor and engage the goals of the endowed position.”
Arola also was recently appointed Interim Director of MSU’s American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. Her research and teaching in composing as culture explores how the acts of writing, designing and making — as well as the ways those skills are taught — cultures people into particular ways of being and sets of values. Her work brings together composition theory, making culture and digital, environmental and cultural rhetoric.
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