The University of Utah has a rich research history. Powered by the curiosity and dedication of its students, faculty, and staff, research at the U continues to drive innovations and discoveries that shape our world.
With this in mind, the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) are showcasing different researchers to spotlight our university’s studies and potential breakthroughs. Here are some of the U’s Research Groundbreakers:
Kendall Gerdes —Recipient of 2025 CCCC Outstanding Book Award in Monograph category for Sensitive Rhetorics: Academic Freedom and Campus Activism
Dr. Kendall Gerdes, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah, has received a 2025 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Outstanding Book Award in the Monograph category for Sensitive Rhetorics: Academic Freedom and Campus Activism, published by University of Pittsburgh Press in 2024. The award honors books within the field of composition and rhetoric.
“Kendall Gerdes’s Sensitive Rhetorics is grounded in the spirit of our field: a deep commitment to supporting students and the work they hope to do in the world,” the award’s selection committee said in a press release from the National Council of Teachers of English. “Throughout Sensitive Rhetorics, Gerdes makes a powerful case against the dismissive and belittling claims that students are too sensitive and argues that it is our sensitivity that enables rhetorical transformation in the first place. We believe Sensitive Rhetorics is a vital and necessary advancement in how rhetoric and composition theory help us imagine new ways of being, thinking, and responding to the world around us.”
Gerdes currently serves as president of her campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Kendall is also the founder and facilitator of the Scholarly Writing Collective, a writing accountability group for faculty and graduate students at the U.
“It is deeply humbling to see Sensitive Rhetorics recognized by my colleagues in rhetoric and writing studies with this award,” said Gerdes. “The book analyzes public conversations about the scope of academic freedom in the context of controversial student activism over the past decade. Sensitive Rhetorics also speaks to the (mis)representation and politicization of campus issues in the wider public, and it invites readers to take student activism seriously as a rhetorical intervention in campus cultural and institutional life — and even in wider national and international politics. I hope receiving an Outstanding Book Award from CCCC will help this book find a wide audience among people who are committed to the work of higher education.”
Gerdes will be announced as a recipient of a CCCC Outstanding Book Award during the CCCC Awards Presentation on Friday, April 11th, during the 2025 CCCC Annual Convention in Baltimore, MD.
Emily J. Salisbury, Utah Criminal Justice Center — Oregon Department of Corrections Award to Serve Incarcerated Men and their Families
Emily J. Salisbury, Director of the Utah Criminal Justice Center and Associate Professor in the College of Social Work, was recently awarded a $135,000 contract with the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) to modify the Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA) for incarcerated men. The WRNA is the only actuarial offender risk/needs assessment that includes measures of trauma, unhealthy intimate relationships, parental stressors, and strengths. Oregon DOC has utilized the WRNA for over a decade with their female population and is now interested in modifying the tool for men to identify and treat the effects of men’s trauma and to facilitate improved family relationships among incarcerated fathers.
Dr. Salisbury shared, “Oregon DOC has been a long-time community partner, and our team at the Utah Criminal Justice Center is thrilled to work alongside them to determine the predictive validity of this modified instrument with men, what we are calling the MRNA. Men’s traumatic experiences have long been ignored by offender risk/need instruments and the overall criminal legal system (think of the Menedez brothers), and we seek to highlight their importance for reducing men’s recidivism and facilitating motivation for behavior change.”