USU’s Rachel Bryson Wins ATTW Graduate Research Award

Congratulations to USU English Department graduate student Rachel Welton Bryson, who was recently awarded an Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) Graduate Research Award. ATTW “is committed to advancing the research of graduate students in technical and professional communication,” and this national award provides scholars with funds for research and conference expenses.  

Rachel is a PhD candidate in Technical Communication & Rhetoric at USU, where she teaches technical communication and first-year composition. Her research interests combine disability studies frameworks with the theory and practice of technical communication, particularly in how those theories coalesce around learning design in higher education. Specifically, she studies faculty responsiveness to student disclosures of less-apparent disabilities, such as mental health disability, and how policies, practices, and documentation surrounding disability accommodation both afford and constrain opportunities for student persistence and retention. Rachel lives in northern Utah with her geographer husband, three children, and a small but noisy flock of chickens.