Congratulations to Marybeth Shea and Cameron Mozafari, Whose Co-Authored Article Appears in the May 2014 Issue of COMMUNICATION DESIGN QUARTERLY

Marybeth Shea and doctoral candidate Cameron Mozafari's co-authored article "Communicating Complexity in Transdisciplinary Science Teams for Policy: Applied Stasis Theory for Organizing and Assembling Collaboration" was in Communication Design Quarterly

ABSTRACT
This paper presents an application of stasis theory for the purpose of consulting with interdisciplinary teams of scientists working in the early stages of composing a science policy advisory document. By showing that stasis theory can be used as an organizing conceptual tool, we demonstrate how cooperative and organized question-asking practices calm complex interdisciplinary scientific disputations in order to propel productive science policy work. We believe that the conceptual structure of stasis theory motivates scientists to shift their viewpoints from solitary expert specialists toward that of allied policy guides for their advisory document’s reader. We further argue that, through the use of stasis theory, technical writers can aid interdisciplinary scientists in policy writing processes, thus fostering transdisciplinary collaboration.
As you can see, Marybeth and her co-author, UMD English doctoral candidate Cameron Mozafari, do excellent work in demonstrating how the rhetorical theories at the heart of our professional writing courses can and do indeed powerfully inform professional practice.

Read the article and the entire journal issue via this URL: http://sigdoc.acm.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/CDQ-2-3-May-2014.pdf