Inclusive Learning Design Researcher Heather Turner Joins English Dept.
Professor explores social justice issues via her literary platform
By Ally O'Connor '20
With her passions for providing access and inclusion to people engaged in writing, Dr. Heather Noel Turner recently joined SCU’s Department of English. Turner joins SCU after completing her Ph.D. in the highly-regarded Rhetoric and Writing program at Michigan State University. While at MSU, Turner participated in several research projects that sought to provide greater access to writing technologies and practices.
Through her research, Turner explores the question, “how do we as teacher-scholars practice equality, promote justice, and amplify agency as we participate in knowledge-making?” Her goal is to treat access to writing and writing technologies as a social justice issue. To that end, she utilizes what she calls “a digital feminist approach” that explores practices that empower people engaged in technical writing.
In both her scholarship and her teaching, Turner often creates community-based design projects that address social issues by making technologies and texts more functional, usable and accessible. Excited to join a community that shares the same goal for social justice, Turner notes that her objective “as a scholar, teacher, and designer is to make information visible by iterating and refining it.” Her goal, she notes, is for more people to be able to design “inclusive technologies and texts from the start.”
Prior to coming to Santa Clara, Turner has held positions as a User Experience (UX) Consultant for MSU’s Hub for Innovation in Teaching and Technology; the Writing, Information, and Digital Experience (WIDE) Research Center; and the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan. In addition, her research on community-based design and justice has been published in Technical Communication and The Journal of Technical Writing and Communication.
Turner teaches several courses at SCU, including Critical Thinking and Writing (ENGL 1A and 1B), Technical Writing and Communication (ENGL 112), Introduction to Writing Studies (ENGL 16), and Writing for Social Change (ENGL 111).