Welcome to Issue 16.2 of Xchanges!

As I write this during a time when we are all still in the midst of the pandemic, trying to find sustainable lives between multiple spaces—work and home, virtual and in-person—I’m reminded of a recent episode of This American Life, “The Ghost in the Machine,” which focuses on people around the world trying to connect to those in their lives across time and space. Many of us are looking for ways to find such connection to others in our own lives, even as circumstances beyond our control may require us to be separate from one another. In putting together this latest issue, which features incredible scholarly work of undergraduate students, we are grateful for how it helped us to connect with those in Writing Studies who made it possible–reviewers, editorial team members, authors, the mentors of the students whose work is featured, and readers like you. We could not, would not, have this issue without you all. 

Within this issue, authors invite us to see the seemingly familiar in new ways, examining topics like historical newspapers, memorials, undergraduate researchers, technical writers, boybands, and the Grim Reaper. Their methods, analyses, and styles reflect the interdisciplinary nature of Writing Studies, of how this field is connected to, informed by, and strengthened by so many others.

We open with “Rugged Truth: Individualism in Chicago’s Prominent Newspapers throughout the 1920-1930s” by Brooke Eubanks from Columbia College Chicago. Eubanks’s article uses critical discourse analysis to look at historical narratives of individualism in two Chicago newspapers. 

Alicia Furlan’s (University of Pittsburgh) “From Industry to Creativity: The Westinghouse Memorial and the Evolution of Pittsburgh” considers how the material reality of a monument paying tribute to a Pittsburgh-based engineer interacts both with the narratives of the city's powerful elites and with the lived realities of the working class.  

In “Examining Equity in Accessibility to Undergraduate Scientific Research,” Marion Olsen of Roger Williams University helps readers understand inequity in Scientific research opportunities for undergraduates, specifically within Chemistry and Biology, drawing on interviews with undergraduates as well as critical discourse analysis. 

Uintah Arroyo, J. Hudd Hayes, Nicol Jolley, Kelci Santy, Hollye Tyler, Trevor West, Saxxon Duncan, and Jaime Winston writing with faculty member, Emily Petersen all from Weber State University, draw on interview data to provide a valuable window into the everyday experiences of technical communicators around the world in “Understanding the Experiences of Technical Writers in New Zealand and Australia.” 

In “Brockhampton: The All-American Boyband,” Maggie Sardino, from Syracuse University, demonstrates how Brockhampton is a counterpublic to mainstream boy bands, examining the use of various rhetorical devices to give readers insight into genre subversion. 

Brandon Simon, of Rowan University, in “Parabolic Fear Appeals, Culturally Responsible Messaging about HIV/AIDS, and the Metaphor of the Grim Reaper” analyzes the figure of the Grim Reaper in a range of contexts during the 1980s to show the importance and necessity of communicators taking precautions to ensure the creation of culturally responsible messages. 

Not only do these authors represent a range of research interests, methods, and perspectives, they also represent a range of colleges and universities in various locations within the United States. Despite their range, these authors all connect here in this issue of Xchanges, and we hope also form a connection with all of you, our readers. 

Given the challenges of the last year, these contributions represent more than just the hard work of the authors and their mentors. They represent hope and exciting possible futures, with writers contributing to the scholarly fields of technical communication, rhetoric, and writing across the curriculum.

We are grateful this issue’s authors have done just that despite such a challenging and difficult year. We look forward to receiving submissions from undergraduate and graduate writers who may share their work with Xchanges in the months to come. 

Issue 16.2 is our inaugural one as an editorial team, and we are so excited to continue to connect with readers, authors, reviewers, and others across Writing Studies within and beyond these pages. 

-Alex Hanson
Co-Managing Editor