Elena Kalodner-Martin, PhD '24, has received the 2025 CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication for “Medical Evidence, Expertise, and Experiential Knowledge: A Study of Patients’ Communication Practices on Social Media.” The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) is a constituent organization within the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Dissertations for this award are evaluated according to five criteria: originality of research, contribution the research makes to the field, methodological soundness of the approach used, awareness of the existing research in the area studied, and overall quality of the writing.
This year’s Selection Committee noted:
This dissertation is expertly situated in the field, collating for readers the key contexts, concepts, and arguments that give urgency to a study of patient communication practices on social media. Engaging and coherent in content and craft, it foregrounds the digital front of Technical and Professional Communication and its capacity for and responsibility to interface with Rhetorics of Health and Medicine. Moreover, by giving space and voice to emerging literacies in Medical Rhetorics, this project productively shifts attention to possibilities for reimagining power and legitimacy in Technical Communication.
Kalodner-Martin will be announced as the recipient of the CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication at the CCCC Awards Presentation on Friday, April 11, during the 2025 CCCC Annual Convention in Baltimore, MD.