Meet Liz Crouse, Author of “Toward Ethnographic Justice: Equitable Research with and for Linguistically Diverse Communities”

Liz Crouse graduated from Elon University in May 2022 with a BA in Professional Writing and Rhetoric. She is working as the Policy and Advocacy Manager at Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity in Washington. Liz is the author of “Toward Ethnographic Justice: Equitable Research with and for Linguistically Diverse Communities” in Vol. 20 of YSW.

She was drawn to the topic of her article after her time working as a TA in an ESOL classroom. As someone who can speak some Spanish and German, she loves learning languages which led to her interest in ELL experiences: “I wanted to know what it was like to learn English under extenuating circumstances and heightened stakes.”

Liz spent two and a half years working on her research which initially started with ethnography. She said she “wanted to get as full an understanding of the context my subjects were situated in as possible.” She also attended the Naylor Workshop On Undergraduate Research In Writing Studies through York College in fall of 2021, where plenary speaker Dr. Carter-Tod discussed  Embodied Social Justice Research. Listening to his speech then inspired her to incorporate another layer of heuristic methodology into the remainder of her research.

She enjoyed writing her methodological reflection after her research was completed because it felt like a reflection in the deepest sense. It allowed her to relive a lot of the seminal moments throughout her research and “process them by attempting to find words to describe everything I saw and what it might mean for a larger audience.”

Liz was excited to submit to Young Scholars in Writing because it gave her a chance to contribute to the discourse about writing research in her area of study. In addition, she was unfamiliar with what undergraduate research in writing could look like, so she wanted her article to serve as a “roadmap for students who may be interested in writing/rhetoric research but aren’t sure how it fits into their subject area interests.”

Liz’s advice for anyone interested in submitting to YSW is to “Do it! It’s an incredible, full-circle feeling to know your research can be accessed, cited, and used in someone else’s investigation. Pick something you’re passionate about and see where it takes you!” She thinks the process of submitting and working with YSW was straightforward and recommends it to others passionate about undergraduate research.

 

This post was written by Alex Merritt.