Dr. Abby Dubisar and Student Research

Dr. Abby M. Dubisar began her time at Iowa State University eleven years ago, working in the field of Rhetoric and Composition. Her work has focused on issues involving feminism and anti-war activism. Most of her published works have been situated at the intersection of those movements, including her dissertation.

Dubisar also coauthors and helps publish undergraduate research, a practice that began with her passion for teaching her students and is the modus operandi of her class assignments. She designs these assignments to force students to think outside of the classroom and apply the lessons they learn to the problems that their greater community faces. She found that once students engage in this line of thinking, they can produce work and ideas that have new, meaningful, and/or novel implications for the research world. When she believes that an idea born in her class could grow into a work worth publishing, she encourages the students to continue and expand on their work while helping along the way.

This method of turning fresh student ideas into a diligent research project creates a unique form of undergraduate research. Rather than a professor bringing students on board to a project that the professor created, students create their own research projects and are mentored by the professor.

The importance of this kind of undergraduate research, which can not be overstated, has been coined as a “high-impact practice” in academia. This practice enriches the undergraduate student experience by exposing students to the research process in a robust way that is fueled by their interests. Students are motivated by researching topics that they find essential. It is a practice that leads to far higher student retention. That is, students who are engaged in undergraduate research at Iowa State are far more likely to graduate from Iowa State.

Dubisar’s work with students has seen great success, with two of the research projects winning the LAS Dean’s High Impact Undergraduate Research Award. Dubisar claims that working with students has been just as enlightening for her as it has been for students: “I get so much out of it [working with students], and it really extends my thinking about what undergraduates are able to do.” She is now working on a project about her experiences with mentoring students and the benefits that her form of student outreach can bring.