Keywords

professionalization, identity, rhetoric, community of practice, interdisciplinary, digital humanities

Subject Categories

Communication | Higher Education | Organizational Communication

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the professionalization of graduate students as a rhetorically mediated and relational process of identity development within an interdisciplinary doctoral program. While existing scholarship emphasizes institutional structures and formal mechanisms of professional preparation, less attention has been given to how graduate students experience professionalization at the individual level. This study addresses that gap by exploring how students interpret expectations, use rhetorical strategies, and construct professional identities across multiple disciplinary contexts.

Grounded in organizational rhetoric and community of practice theory, the study investigates how graduate students in the Texts & Technology Ph.D. Program at the University of Central Florida navigate professional identity development within an interdisciplinary digital humanities environment. A qualitative, interpretive research design was employed, incorporating semi-structured interviews with eleven graduate students and alumni, a survey of faculty and staff, and analysis of program documents and professional artifacts. Data were analyzed using thematic and rhetorical analysis to identify patterns across cases.

Findings demonstrate that professional identity development is not linear or stable but ongoing and recursive, a process shaped through rhetorical practices and relational interaction. Seven cross-cutting themes emerged: ongoing becoming, readiness without closure, belonging through recognition, confidence as composure, impostor feelings as situational, interdisciplinarity as translation with costs, and uneven access shaped by sponsorship and networks. Across these themes, rhetorical practices of self-positioning, audience adaptation, and strategic language use function as the primary mechanism through which professional identity is enacted and negotiated.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Scott, Blake

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

Texts & Technology

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

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