McKena Miyashiro |
Instead of starting class with a lecture or quiz, Vail Fletcher, a communication studies professor, connects with her students on a more personal level by asking her students about their “hypes and gripes.”
Senior Chelsea Halstead, a French and communication studies major, has taken a class every semester with Fletcher, who is also her academic adviser.
“She genuinely cares about how everyone’s doing and she actually wants to know what’s going on,” Halstead said. “Everything I’ve needed in the last four years, she’s been there for, whether that be personal or academic.”
Fletcher’s desire to understand the experiences of those around her also fueled her study of the Occupy Portland movement. Fletcher will receive the 2014 Outstanding Edited Book Award from the National Communication Association for her published work, “Understanding Occupy from Wall Street to Portland.”
The book aims to add a new voice to conversations on wealth and equality by fusing communication theories with economic insights. Fletcher invited scholars from across disciplines to discuss the Occupy protests. Through these different perspectives, Fletcher tells a messier but richer account of the movement.
"The book captured my interests of looking at how to make the lived experience for all people and all creatures better," Fletcher said. "Struggle and suffering, I think, are a unifying struggle for many people and animals all across the world."
Fletcher, originally from upstate New York, started teaching at UP four years ago after receiving her doctorate from the University of New Mexico. She often challenges students to focus on the interconnectivity of experience, and has established a gender and international development class to explore the connections between poverty, gender and sexuality.
"I think it’s really the heartbeat of where I am for my intellectual development,” Fletcher said. “Coming back to that natural gravitational pull, for me at sites of struggle, both at the self and macro level.”
Fletcher also brings her passion for intersectionality to her classrooms. She encourages students to pull different aspects of their life together and spend time focusing on the interconnectivity of the world. Fletcher challenges students to reflect on all kinds of communication, from international development to social media.
"I think this is a job that lets me think about the things I want to think about, and interact with people on the same plane,” Fletcher said. “I'm doing something with my life that is so enriching and so consistently challenging in the ways I want to be challenged.”
Fletcher also helps to foster a community in every class she teaches.
“You’re not there to memorize facts but to also engage,” Halstead said. “That’s always been the best thing: That you go to class and never really know what to expect. It always goes one way or another into what we’re passionate about, which is what I think is the best way to learn.”
Halstead completed her capstone project in Fletcher’s gender and international development class. She focused on how the breast cancer awareness movement affects other cancer awareness campaigns.
Outside the classroom, Fletcher operates a community supported agriculture program with her partner. In February, they registered their farm as a nonprofit animal rescue organization. Fletcher aims to help food production animals that were neglected or malnourished.
“It’s a new part of my lived experience,” Fletcher said. “In addition to the academic world, I’m into this environmental, earthy world, and I’m trying to merge those into a cool, fun, lived experience.”
Fletcher’s research focuses on the intersections of culture, conflict and identity with an emphasis on romantic and interpersonal relationships. She also feels that this intersection should carry over, with students focusing more on the interconnectivity of experience instead of separate classes.
The 2014 Outstanding Edited Book Award will be presented to Fletcher at the NCA Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on Friday, Nov. 21. McKena Miyashiro is a news reporter for The Beacon. You can reach her at miyashir17@up.edu.
