Mike Haen is a new post-doc in the First-Year Writing Program. While pursuing his Ph.D. in composition and rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), Mike served as assistant director of the Writing Across the Curriculum program, taught first-year and advanced undergraduate writing courses, consulted with undergraduate and graduate students in the writing center, and designed and facilitated outreach programming as a member of the Writing Center leadership team.

Mike’s research focuses on two kinds of social interaction in higher education: one-to-one writing consultations and class discussions. In his dissertation, he applied discourse analytic methods to examine how course-embedded writing consultants (i.e., writing fellows) accomplish instructional goals, like giving critical feedback, while building and preserving positive relationships with students in these one-to-one interactions. His research has been published or is forthcoming in WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, Studies in Applied Linguistics and TESOL and The Writing Center Journal. During his final year at UW, Mike worked for the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. As a research associate, he analyzed student interview data collected through The Discussion Project–a professional development series that helps instructors create engaging and academically rigorous classroom environments in which students experience productive classroom discussions on important issues and topics. Outside of his research and teaching, Mike is an avid runner, Milwaukee Bucks fan and cat dad. He is looking forward to exploring the east coast with his girlfriend Jennifer.​