The Mundane, Power, and Symmetry: A Reading of the Field with Dorothy Winsor and the Tradition of Ethnographic Research

Abstract

Dorothy Winsor's induction as an ATTW Fellow in 2007 and the disciplinary moment of reflection invited by this issue provide the exigence for the story of how Winsor's scholarship, and ethnographic scholarship more broadly, has shaped the field. This story, told via the interpretive lens of three topoi (the mundane, power, and symmetry) that emerged from an interview with Winsor in 2009, suggests how the field's theory and methodology have matured over the past three decades and anticipates what it will become in the future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to thank Dorothy Winsor for the time she gave to the interview and for the generosity of her comments. The author also wishes to thank Candice Rai and Mark Zachry for reading and commenting on early versions of the article and the blind reviewers and the editor of this journal for their insightful comments and editorial guidance.

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Notes on contributors

Sarah Read

Sarah Read is an assistant professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse at DePaul University. She teaches courses in technical and professional writing and research methodology.