Jaclyn M. Wells, Purdue University

In spring 2007, I began working with a fellow graduate student in Purdue’s Rhet/Comp program on a community engagement project that would become the basis for both our dissertations. Allen and I agreed to work together because of our mutual interests in community engagement and public rhetorics, as well as our complementary interests in professional writing and usability (what we would call "his things"), and writing program administration and adult basic education ("my things"). Early in our collaboration, we agreed upon a few fundamental issues: 1. community engagement projects should be sustainable; 2. community engagement should involve collaboration between community and university partners; 3. engagement work, communication among participants, and empirical research should happen continuously and in connection throughout projects.