Title: PhD Candidate
University: Virginia Tech
Email: katerandall@vt.edu
Description of your work
My pre-Virginia-Tech background is as a technical writer and editor at a medical publishing company, where I did a lot of research and writing in end-of-life care and communication. Since starting a PhD and reading about community-based rhetoric and writing work, my research projects have been more concerned with local and/or place-based healthcare concerns. Based on my volunteer work as a medical coordinator for a nonprofit refugee resettlement organization, I’m interested in researching medical translation, what kind of integration is expected into the US healthcare system, and how laws and policies affect healthcare practices in Virginia. My dissertation work (in the early stages!) is about the process of “medical resettlement” for refugees–basically, the rhetorical situations one is expected to navigate during the (nebulously defined) resettlement process. Currently I’m collecting interview data from resettlement providers, volunteers, and people who have been resettled about the enactment of medical policy and moments of tension in medical resettlement.