Crowbirds are saying goodbye to an especially hot summer as we soar back into the academic year, but before we fully say goodbye, let’s look back at all the research, projects, and activities we did this summer. However, we acknowledge that it is now late October. Summer is in the distant past and spooky season is in full swing, so in case you are hankering for something a little more spookish instead, please enjoy Dilger’s decorations below:
Now that we have hopefully satisfied your spooky needs, let’s review our summer experiences.
Summer Recaps
Bradley Dilger taught a summer class for the first time since 1998! Scholarly Editing & Publishing, with ten graduate students, went great — but it’ll likely be Dilger’s last summer class, too. He also traveled to Ohio for biking with his brother; Traverse City, Michigan for a week on the beach; then Madison, Wisconsin for the Dartmouth Seminar for Writing Research; then home to a clogged upstairs drain. And then got sick on the second day of Fall classes… but still got the inbox down under 100 for the first time in 2026.
Jackie Hurlock spent the summer focused on improving her personal wellness. She went for walks, runs, and many 10+ mile bike rides. She also spent time with her family, friends, and loved ones. In June, she went camping and celebrated her twenty-first birthday, where she got to experience going to a bar. Near the end of the summer, she shifted gears as she prepared for the school year and hopped back into Crow work.
Bethany Lee had her first internship at Indiana Humanities, a non-profit organization focused on uplifting the humanities in the Hoosier state. She spent her free time outside, going on many runs and rock climbing with friends. She also visited her good friend in North Carolina, where she got to explore the great food, book stores, and stationary shops of Charlotte.
Michelle McMullin celebrated the results of her successful tenure case in May, then spent the summer caring for family and playing video games (Sovereign Tower and TR-49 are the stand out favorites). She also worked with Lisa Melonçon and Valerie Smith on finishing up the edited collection Research Practice in Technical and Professional Communication which is now available open source via WAC Clearinghouse. Among the excellent work in that collection, you can read a chapter by fellow Crowbird Shelton Weech and his colleagues Holly Baker and Suzan Flanagan on mapping the Literature for a new project.
Shelley Staples gave a workshop to teachers at the University of Malta Communication and Academic Skills Programme for the fourth year in a row and presented co-authored work with Dr. Randi Reppen and Dr. Anh Dang at the The 12th Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) Biennial International Conference. She also met the U.S. Ambassador to Malta!
Ola Swatek worked during the summer on developing an online course for Old Dominion University’s general education writing program. Specifically, she designed an ENGL110 English Composition course that focused on writing studies as the framework for this introductory class. She also travelled to the Midwest and Poland to visit family.
Anywho, Happy Halloween! 🎃