Professor encourages students to push boundaries

When Tatiana Batova arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2005 to study foreign languages and literature, she had already earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in German, English and Foreign Language Pedagogy from Tula State Pedagogical University in her native Russia.

While in Milwaukee, she earned another master’s degree, as well as her doctorate in English. By the time she came to ASU in 2013 as an assistant professor in the School of Letters and Sciences, it was safe to say she was well-prepared.

Specifically, Batova teaches and researches information management technologies and technical and health care communication. She is interested in technical communication because of its interdisciplinary approaches, which she says allow her “to participate in improving society on different levels, from designing new student-centered methodologies in education, to promoting information safety in health care, to helping global organizations create user-friendly information with fewer resources.”

In 2010, Batova was recognized with the Frank R. Smith Outstanding Journal Article Award, Technical Communication (a flagship journal of the Society for Technical Communication) for “Writing for the Participants of International Clinical Trials: Law, Ethics, and Culture.” One article is selected for the award each year. “Getting such recognition was especially important to me, because my article raised some very important issues of clinical research with participants from various cultures and language backgrounds,” she said.

It shouldn’t go unnoted that the societal implications of Batova’s research align perfectly with ASU’s commitment to engage globally. She hopes to impress this upon her students as well, challenging them to push their boundaries and think critically about the context of communication in real-world scenarios, the world over. And Batova believes ASU is just the kind of university where she can do that.

"I chose ASU for its great entrepreneurial spirit and for the opportunities to collaborate with outstanding faculty from many schools and departments,” she said.