How communication shapes research practice and outcomes

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

Hurricane Island, Maine: Grad students Jen Smith-Mayo and Sarah Risley prepare to launch a drone at the study site of another Leslie lab student, Phoebe Jekielek. Photo credit: H. Leslie

February 12, 2023 Uncategorized

Congratulations to graduate student Jen Smith-Mayo!

Jen just published an article in Communication Design Quarterly – “Embodied Participation: (re)Situating Bodies in Collaborative Research” – highlighting how the many ways in which people interact while collaborating, from listening, sharing and organizing ideas to fostering empathy, deciding what questions to ask, working through tensions and laughing together, shape research and its outcomes.

“Our work pays attention to the many ways in which bodies are a foundational part of research, from the ways bodies participate, collaborate within, are studied, conduct studies, write together and are written (or not written) about,” says Jennifer Smith-Mayo, Ph.D. student in communication at the University of Maine and co-author of the study. “This focus on embodiment draws attention to research practices that, in the process of striving for objectivity in data, may make bodies involved in that research invisible or detach them from the research context.”

Learn more about the communication research that Jen and colleagues are conducting as part of the Maine-eDNA project…