Joyce Kinkead
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
English Department

Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor of the Year

Dr. Joyce Kinkead, Distinguished Professor of English, is deeply committed to the transformational power of authentic student inquiry. In the Department of English, she has a long track record of mentoring undergraduate researchers. To date, over 70 undergraduates have authored research articles, some as co-authors with Professor Kinkead. She has her radar attuned to opportunities. When she saw a call from a national journal about student-athletes and undergraduate research, she contacted a former student, and the result was a co-authored article with an Aggie football player. Notably, she created the department’s first quantitative intensive (QI) course, ENGL 3470, in which students learn research ethics and engage in IRB projects that employ qualitative and quantitative evidence. She also authored the textbook that guides students through research processes, Researching Writing. Students from the course consistently present at on-campus UR symposia, Research on Capitol Hill, UCUR, NCUR, and other professional venues. A whole-class project on “The Rise and Fall of the Blue Book” was published in the prestigious rhetoric and writing journal, Young Scholars in Writing. More recently, another whole-class project focusing on an assessment of the course was published in College English, a leading journal in the profession. In all of her classes, she looks for opportunities for students to move their writing to authentic publication and dissemination and mentors them through the process, providing them with their initial entry into the profession. Professor Kinkead is known nationally and internationally for her work in undergraduate research, which includes significant books, chapters, and articles. To date, she is the only humanist to be named a CUR Fellow. Dr. Kinkead is a leading scholar on undergraduate research, grounded in her own work as an outstanding mentor and advocate for undergraduates.