As the academic year draws to a close, many of our colleagues have been keeping very busy beyond their teaching and tutoring. Read on below to see what they've been working on.
Nissa Ren Cannon presented on the ways she's been working with students to develop their credibility as researchers during CTL's April "Teaching with AI Community Share-out."
Jennifer Johnson recently published a chapter, “Reflexivity Memos in Undergraduate Research-Based Writing: Opening Spaces to Value Students’ Experiences and Stories in Research,” in the edited collection Storied Practices: Positionality in Writing Studies from The WAC Clearinghouse. Also in the spring, journalist Lila Shroff was a guest visitor in Jennifer’s new course, Language, Culture, and Belonging Across Generations. Lila Shroff, a Stanford alum (and Jennifer's former PWR2 student), is a technology writer at The Atlantic, where she covers the social, cultural, and economic impacts of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Her reporting often focuses on how AI is reshaping work, education, and everyday life—especially for younger generations. Students prepared for her visit by reading several of her articles and developing questions for an engaging Q&A discussion, including questions about her approach to revision and the role of feedback in her writing process.
As one last bit of news from JJ, her 2026 PWR 2 student, Reid Smith, received the Donald and Robin Kennedy Undergraduate Award for best essay on a Jewish theme for his seminar paper “What Stanford Students Mean When We Say Zionism,” written for the course "Language, Identity, and Power." The award is sponsored by Stanford's Taube Center for Jewish Studies.
Kathleen Tarr served as judge of the regional National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC) held in March at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and in April was confirmed as a mayoral appointment to the Urban Forest Advisory Committee. Kathleen also participated in her fifteenth annual Swim A Mile to raise funds for the Women's Cancer Resource Center. She invites colleagues to join her in the pool on Team SPOON! next year!
Roberta Wolfson shared, "I'm excited to share that the Asian American Research Center at Stanford (AARCS) has awarded me an 2026-27 Seed Grant to support the early research and development of my second book project. Here's a link to the AARCS announcement. In addition, I had the great pleasure of welcoming a guest speaker to my PWR 2 class this quarter: Ingrid Hu Dahl, a public speaking consultant and author of "Sun Shining on Morning Snow," which recounts her life experiences as a queer mixed race woman. During her visit to my class, she led students in a discussion about her memoir (a great example of rhetoric about multiracial identity in the wild) and facilitated a workshop on public speaking, which included 1:1 coaching with some volunteer students."
