Jake Buller-Young, an English doctoral student, received the Trailblazer Award for his service, academic achievement, and commitment to others.
Jake Buller-Young came to Knoxville in 2019 to dig into the struggles of public discourse, and he is now the newest recipient of the highest doctoral student honor at UT: The Trailblazer Award.
Buller-Young, a doctoral student who passed his dissertation defense May 1, is graduating this spring with a PhD in English and a focus in rhetoric, writing, and linguistics. He has always seen rhetoric and writing as not only a way to articulate your beliefs, but to understand the beliefs of others.
“When I started researching rhetoric and writing, I wanted to know: What separates productive arguments from unproductive arguments?” Buller-Young said. “Is it possible to argue about religion, politics, and other hot-button issues, and to leave that conversation feeling hopeful instead of hopeless?”
Choosing UT
When Buller-Young was looking at schools for his graduate studies, he had several opportunities. UT seemed like the best fit, with its robust graduate student support programs and integral hands-on experiences for those learning how to teach. He started the first year of his master’s program as a teaching assistant for English 101 and 102. Tutoring in the Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center helped him feel ready for teaching in his second year.
For his PhD, Buller-Young was enthusiastic about staying at UT to keep working with his mentor, Jeffrey Ringer, along with taking classes outside of his department, where he earned a Qualitative Research Methods in Education certificate.
“Getting a robust background in empirical research while completing an English PhD is an unusual opportunity, and it’s served me very well both in my dissertation research and in my administrative work,” Buller-Young said.
Forging a New Path
In studying how to teach first-year composition, Buller-Young is rewriting how students learn to create productivity in arguments. For his dissertation, he worked with a team to redesign portions of the English 101 curriculum with the goal of advancing students’ civic discourse skills through writing and rhetoric. Buller-Young is aiming to teach students how to interact with and argue about politics in a thoughtful, empathetic way, so they are able to listen and learn across differences.
“English 101 is helpful for refining your writing skills and setting you up for future success in your classes, to be sure—but I hope that it can also help students learn to dialogue across differences, and change our democracy for the better in the process,” Buller-Young said.
The COVID-19 pandemic upended Buller-Young’s first year of graduate school. He experienced the challenges associated with emergency remote learning first-hand, including the loss of social connection among graduate students. Once the pandemic had passed, he set out to help rebuild the community.
“I’m really proud of helping to restart some of our department’s grad traditions after the pandemic faded, including in-person workshops and biweekly social events with other graduate students in my division,” Buller-Young said.
Being a True Trailblazer
Buller-Young’s commitment to his community is celebrated widely in the English department. Lisa King, associate professor and director of composition, has worked with Buller-Young since he began at UT in 2019. His contribution to the English department and his students proved his value to the rhetoric community. He graduated from the MA program with distinction in 2021, and when he decided to apply to UT for his PhD, faculty in the department were delighted. King says it is a privilege to see him come into his own as an administrator, teacher, and scholar.
“Even [in 2019] he impressed me with his sharp intellect, his kindness as a developing instructor, his integrity, and his commitment to doing good work no matter what the task at hand,” King said. “He is an ideal representative of what it means to find a way to create something that brings us together in difficult times; that’s what a Trailblazer is meant to be.”
The Trailblazer Award is a new award for doctoral students who demonstrate high academic achievement and outstanding commitment to others in their work and who are active, significant contributors to the university or their discipline. Recipients are resilient Vols who embody the Volunteer Spirit, exhibiting initiative, excellence, service, and leadership.
In August, Buller-Young will begin his teaching career as an assistant professor of English at McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas. He takes great pride and honor in being recognized by the university for his commitment to service and academic excellence.
“I take the label of ‘Volunteer’ very seriously,” Buller-Young said. “As cliche as it might sound, I strongly believe that I’m here—both in Knoxville and in this world—to give light to others.”
by Sloan Docekal