Congratulations to JPEE’s three graduates: Ryan McCarty, Adrienne Raw, and Elizabeth Tacke.  You have each accomplished a great deal during your graduate school careers. You have been recognized for your scholarship and for your teaching, you have made important contributions to the community of JPEE, and you have left your mark on the University of Michigan.

The titles of your dissertations speak to the rich diversity of your interests: Ryan’s A Translingual Approach to Transfer, Adrienne’s Mediating and Mediated: Fandom  Discussion and the (Re)Shaping of Fannish Realities, and Elizabeth’s Rhetorics of Masking: Negotiating Disclosures of Disability and Trauma all add important insights to ongoing academic discussions.  We expect to hear more from you on these subjects in the coming years because you have already been recognized as scholars worthy of attention. You have been invited to give talks at national conferences, you have published articles in important journals, and you have received awards and fellowships for your scholarship.

But this is not all you’ve done during your years in JPEE. You’ve won lavish praise for your teaching. Notably, all three of you received David and Linda Moscow Prizes for Excellence in Teaching Composition, which recognizes remarkable energy, passion, insight, pedagogical skill, creativity, and commitment in teaching writing. And Elizabeth also won the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award from Rackham.  You’ve given generously of your time helping students in Detroit prepare college admission essays and serving as a resource on teaching for your colleagues. You’ve produced curriculum materials, participated in research projects, and undertaken innovative projects to enrich the intellectual lives of others on campus. Ryan’s work with a science communication workshop, Elizabeth’s creation of an interdisciplinary workshop on carceral studies, and Adrienne’s contributions to a workshop on teaching and technology are just three items on a much longer list.

You have all been good colleagues, serving on committees, supporting your peers within and beyond the Program, and serving the wider community in multiple ways. As you move on to the next chapter of your life,  you leave UM better for your presence here, and you will always be part of the wider UM/JPEE community.

Congratulations!