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Remembering Bill H-D

Bradley Dilger &�Allegra W. Smith

Talk & slide deck at writecrow.org →

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l emailed Bill Hart-Davidson to consult on a manuscript that was running away from me. He said, “Come over.” I drove from Rochester Hills to East Lansing -- first time l ever went to MSU.

Bill invited me into his office. He let me talk through the argument l was trying to make. He listened. Then, on a whiteboard, he let me outline the threads of my argument.�It became clear right before my eyes.

He didn’t take charge of my writing. He simply created room for me to see it through. He was associate dean then and needn’t have had time for me.

Dr. Josephine Walwema�U of Washington

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“The Compound” gathering after C&W 2019

Flyer for Day of Remembrance for Bill

Leslie Hart-Davidson remembering Bill at the Broad Art Museum

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Bill’s tree, planted�May 2024 on the�Michigan State campus

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Bill riding around his driveway 3,000 times to raise money for diabetes research, tweeting goofiness, and helping Jim Ridolfo run an ultramarathon

Photos by Leslie H-D

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Elevating Dr. Miriam Williams�to ATTW Fellow

Michigan State University’s highest faculty award

William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award

The William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award honors faculty for their comprehensive and sustained record of scholarly excellence in research and/or creative activities, instruction, and outreach. The award is supported by the Office of University Advancement at MSU.

2013: Bill Hart-Davidson

Professor, Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures; Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education

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When the teacher is the main source of feedback, well the teacher is learning a lot. But the students are not learning as much. Because it is the givers who gain most from the practice of framing high-quality feedback…. Giving helpful feedback is the most powerful thing you can ask students to do. It is the high-intensity interval training of writing instruction. And this is why I have devoted a decade and a half of time creating online spaces that make it easier for students to practice these things.

Bill H-D

Have we ever done a good job teaching writing?

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Bill was way ahead of the curve on methods for thinking about writing that are gathered under the umbrella of “artificial intelligence” today. That’s visible in his computational approaches to textual analysis, and his work with Eli Review, where he was able to embed giving into a tool for teaching writing. Eli, developed by Bill H-D and Jeff Grabill, is a software tool and support system for writing instruction. It is predicated on the concept of “giver’s gain:” that the practice of giving feedback actually helps the feedback provider to become a better writer. “Giving feedback,” Bill contended, “is the most powerful thing you can ask students to do. It is the high-intensity interval training of writing instruction.” Feedback givers gain from “thinking alongside” their colleagues, which in turn helps them see their own writing with new eyes.

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Lily said, “Why don’t you stop by that fungus my Dad loved so much?”

Bill, remember when you first showed me the slime mold? You always saw the deeper beauty of things.

Chris Long (+ photo)

A letter to Bill Hart-Davidson

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Though he only began playing bass eight years ago, Bill’s musicianship was that of a lifelong player. Just another example of his greatness and ability and willingness to conquer any challenge he set his mind to. Above all, his kindness and friendship is irreplaceable, and I miss him dearly. Nick Pigeon, guitar. The Blue Jazz Working Group playing in Bill H-D’s basement at The Compound on the day of Bill H-D’s service.

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Running brings memory back into your legs and lungs, your blood and bone.

You called to say “bring a camera!” to the hospital.

We still needed cameras then.

The disposable kind, lens and film in one. I raced across town with them.

Little memory machines.

She was here, Delaney, in the world, in your lives.

She is here.

Bill H-D

Run again

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My best memory of him is not the first time I met him but the second. I first met him when I was a grad student. I was a little shy because I was nobody, and he was Bill H-D. We chatted a bit and then I was on my way. But the *second* time I met him, not only did he remember me, but he remembered everything we chatted about. He asked me about my research, he asked me about running, he asked me about jobs. I was shocked he even remembered who I was at all. That interaction has stuck with me for years. He genuinely cared even though he barely knew me.

Dr. Ryan Shepherd�Northern Illinois U

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Bill's mentoring is well known. The field of writing studies is often envisioned as a “family tree,” and the Hart-Davidson tree is mighty. As a mentor, Bill not only guided over 50 PhD students as chair or committee member at Michigan State and Rensselaer Polytechnic—he also touched countless others through his scholarly network, both in-person at conferences and online through social media. By show of hands, how many of us here also benefited from Bill’s mentorship?

Earlier we mentioned Josie Walwema’s experience with Bill inviting her to campus to talk about her research. There are countless other examples that have been shared, like this one from Ryan Shepherd, that we could tell for hours.The day after Bill’s passing, I scrolled through at least two dozen posts on Facebook and they were all about him. So many people recalled Bill’s ability to make everyone feel welcomed and heard. Like a true colleague.

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Bill H-D card sorting for the CPIL values framework, and on dean’s office retreat

Photos: Chris Long

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But this mentoring was not just individual. When Bill was promoted to Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education, he saw it as an opportunity to truly create enduring mentoring through work as an administrator. He sought to improve our field and our institutions. He wanted to leave academia better than he found it.

This led him to design, with MSU colleagues, a framework called “Charting Pathways of Intellectual Leadership” (CPIL). CPIL aligns the policies and practices of evaluating faculty to “expand our understanding of what is valuable university work and empower staff and faculty to put their values into intentional practice.” In short, CPIL built a model for others to get recognition through reappointment, tenure, and promotion for innovation like Bill’s: building relationships with communities, mentoring minoritized students, and creating new forms of public and activist scholarship.

Bill once wrote, “I consider one of my best qualities to be the fact that I will change my mind if presented with compelling reasons.” Indeed, Bill’s effectiveness as a mentor was bolstered by his ability to have a generous read of any person or situation. He could wade into thorny debates in a committee meeting or on a Facebook thread and defuse the situation with careful listening and good humor. He could see the grain of truth or the nugget of wisdom in even the angriest of screeds from the saltiest of internet trolls. He always led with kindness. We have often joked that we need to wear “WWBHDD?” bracelets to remember to ask ourselves: “What Would Bill Hart-Davidson Do?” He would give.

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the emergence of the role of the “gardener,” or the person in each context whose primary role was to nurture the growth of specific technologies within that information ecology…. I could relate. I have done a little gardening in my own information ecologies. As a graduate student in an English department, for example, I coded HTML and showed others how they could learn “just enough to get them by,” as the request often goes. I helped unravel networking problems, showing colleagues and superiors how to store and retrieve data on a remote volume or send documents to a printer in a different office… (2000, p. 82)

Bill H-D, in his first article published for SIGDOC

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I won’t be cutting down that oak tree anytime soon. I see that it is, in mid-career at 200 years old, doing precisely what it should be doing. I will look to ways I can identify and encourage my senior colleagues even as I recognize their roles in nurturing our intellectual ecosystem in CAL. We can get better at counting the work of helping other people as important, even vital to what we do. We can recognize when their wisdom and experience can provide opportunity for others, without waiting until they become vulnerable or exploited to learn what riches they have inside.

Bill H-D, reflecting on his promotion to professor and appointment as associate dean

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In a joyful and reflective blog post upon becoming associate dean, Bill described how his Michigan State colleague Beronda Montgomery and an MSU arborist helped him find a different way to see a 200 year old tree at The Compound: not as something to cut down before it fell on its own, but for the value it provided to its surroundings, its ecosystem, its community, its ecologies, its networks.

”This is not a giving tree situation,” he wrote. Rather, in enduring, the oak in Bill, Leslie, and Lily’s yard enriched it by providing nutrients, habitat, and shelter to the others who lived there — thriving, and helping others do the same.

Again, classic Bill — the humor of thinking of a 200 year old tree as mid-career. A chance to share what he’s learned from colleagues. Refining what he meant about giving. A moment to reflect on his new role. A way to combine all that to look forward to future generosity. A way to endure.

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Bill’s tree�in autumn

Photo: �Dànielle Nicole DeVoss

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BillH-D�would�give.

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Hart-Davidson Memorial Scholarship at Michigan State University

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