In this interview, Dr. Rosemary Pinney discusses her recently defended dissertation Professional Writing, Personal Stakes: Rhetorical Empathy in Feedback Giving on Analytic Writing in the Intelligence Community. Additionally, she discusses the value of collaborating with her colleagues and taking a step back to look at the big picture.
Can you talk a little bit about your dissertation?
My dissertation research examined how feedback functions as a relational practice in high-stakes professional writing environments. I used the theory of rhetorical empathy developed by Dr. Lisa Blankenship as the foundational theory behind the work. I also drew upon my own experience as a professional writer in the U.S. government for over thirty years to design the project around interviewing professional writers in that environment to try to understand how they think about feedback on writing and how they practice it.
This is an area that has very little attention in the scholarship. Typically, feedback on writing is considered by scholars in the context of secondary or college-level writing. There’s not a lot in the scholarship that helps us understand how feedback on writing works in professional settings. That was the gap. I brought in that theory of empathy because I was particularly interested in how empathy works in our rhetorical experiences. So, my dissertation asks: to what degree do professionals, especially in a high-stakes setting like the intelligence community, think about empathy while providing feedback on writing? And does empathy influence their feedback at all?
My work is really focusing on, at its core, how people learn to remain in conversation with each other, how they listen, how they respond, and how they adjust in ways that make continued engagement possible. I’m hoping it will spur some new thinking about the importance of feedback in general, how we approach feedback on writing, and what kind of rhetorical tools and thinking we use in giving that feedback.
What classes or research experiences led you to that topic and approach?
Well, my own work experience, of course, was foundational over the years. I think I started thinking most seriously about the concept of empathy and its connection to rhetoric in ENGH-720: Histories of Institutional Rhetoric with Dr. Michelle LaFrance, where we were encouraged to choose a concept or a topic and take a look at how it developed throughout the rhetorical tradition. I chose to look at empathy, going way back to its roots in Aristotle, and tried to understand how that concept developed through the millennia into popular understandings of empathy today and how it’s used in many disciplines.
That was kind of the seed that led me to think more seriously about the project. Also, Dr. Blankenship’s book on rhetorical empathy, which is sort of the first book-length treatment of the theory of rhetorical empathy, came out around that same time. I grabbed a copy of that, and that was the beginning of it.
I actually had another course, too, that I had a project where I looked at the concept of empathy from a completely different viewpoint and put together a project related to empathy that was pretty creative in that it was trying to think about how we could help people develop their use of empathy in negotiations. For example, when you’re sitting across the table from a leader, if you’re a political person, or anyone that you would have to negotiate with, how might you be able to prepare for that in ways that would involve the conscious and deliberate use of empathetic strategies?
Switching gears a little bit, what are some of your proudest accomplishments while here at GMU?
I have really enjoyed collaborating with other students. One of my proudest accomplishments during my doctoral studies was working with my colleagues in the program to think through our ideas and put together really innovative and thoughtful projects for our classwork together. That collaboration helped me learn how to think differently about my own projects and gave me a window into the work that my colleagues were doing in special ways. The small classes at Mason and the encouragement of that kind of interaction and engagement really made that possible.
What’s next for you after graduation?
I am, at the moment, looking for opportunities to teach at the college level. I actually completed my career with the federal government just about two years ago. Last year, I spent the majority of my time focusing on finishing my dissertation. I’ve had some experience teaching at the university level, and I’d really love to continue to do that. I’d like to be able to bring what I did at Mason, my understanding of and focus on feedback, and my love of teaching and being in the classroom to my next position.
Last but not least, what’s something fun that you’ve done during the PhD program?
I spent some time outside of class with my colleagues, getting to know them, and just socializing. I think it’s really important to just kick back sometimes and allow ourselves to see each other as individuals outside of our professional and academic work, so I really enjoyed that.
I did some traveling to visit family. I have four children, and two of them just had their own children, so that was a wonderful way to clear my head a little bit from all of the academic pressures and just appreciate the beauty of life itself.
I needed to take a break every once in a while to step back and just take that larger picture view of where I am in my studies and where I am with my dissertation. How can I think through this in ways that help me move forward positively? Those are the kinds of things I turn to: travel, family, getting together with friends.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I have found this program to be incredibly inspiring in so many ways. I felt like the opportunity to be in class right from the beginning with not only my cohort but with students who were maybe finishing up their coursework was not only inspiring, as I said, but incredibly helpful in my development as a doctoral student. I learned so much from that mix of colleagues in the classroom, and I also really appreciated the differences between us. We had very different backgrounds, very different interests. Our dissertations span an incredible amount of field work and topics. I just found that to be the place where I needed to be where I could flourish and think outside the box and across issues in ways that really enriched my coursework and my dissertation itself.