Author Interview with Dr. Callie Rennison
Has this ever happened to you? You are reading online about someone’s work, then discover they are close-by in your own community? When I was looking at the impressive winners of this year’s TAA awards, I was struck by the fact that one SAGE author won prizes for two books. This is a very rigorous peer-reviewed award, so winning twice in the same year is remarkable. As luck would have it, Dr. Callie Rennison is a local.
Back in the halcyon days of last week, when we could actually meet someone in person for coffee, I had a chance to speak with her. I was so impressed by her whole approach to research, writing, and teaching, I wanted to give MethodSpace readers a chance to hear from her. So rather than give you a written exchange, we met in GoToWebinar for this interview.
Tips that resonated with me from this interview include:
- Take a holistic view of your field, including topics other texts don’t cover, and stakeholders whose perspectives are usually missing.
- Write to help students prepare for the messy real worlds of research and practice, not an ideal world where things go according to plan.
- Use real cases that allow readers see the issues in context. By carrying cases through the book, you invite readers to see how situations unfold.
- Suggest writing assignments that ask students to learn how to write in ways that will be effective at communicating with policy-makers, professionals, practitioners who don’t read academic journals.









Order SAGE books here, order Women Leading Change here.
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This article was originally posted on SAGE MethodSpace. Re-published with permission.