English-EWM major Ella Windlan presents her research findings on predictive policing, civil rights at 2024 President’s Showcase

By Kaley Hoppenworth

When Ella Windlan enrolled in LIT4205: Literature of Human Rights during her first semester at Florida State University, she could not have guessed that two years later, she would present her own research based on work she did in the course to a crowd of FSU students, faculty, and other community members.

Yet, that is exactly what Windlan did.

Now, she is a third-year student double majoring in English-Editing, Writing, and Media and international affairs, and Windlan opened the 2024 President’s Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence with an oral presentation on her research findings.

Windlan partnered with Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement after earning an IDEA Grant, and she presented her project, “Algorithmic Law Enforcement Exploring the Human and Civil Rights Implications of Predictive Policing,” at the Oct. 10 showcase.

Growing up in Pasco County, Florida, Windlan was shocked, along with many other Central Florida citizens, when a newspaper published a story detailing how the Pasco County Police Department had been using a predictive policing program drawing data from the county’s school system. The program scored citizens, including minors, according to their likelihood of becoming “prolific offenders.”

As Windlan investigated further on her own, she found that the police department more closely monitored citizens with higher scores, at times showing up at their homes at random, questioning members of the household and citing them for minor code violations. Witnessing these civil rights violations spurred Windlan to bring her curiosity to the classroom and write a research paper. Read her Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House Blog post for more information about the project and her research experiences.

English Assistant Professor Trinyan Paulsen Mariano’s Literature of Human Rights course provided the perfect platform.

“Learning about this, I knew I wanted to explore the issues in a scholarly and human-centered way, reflecting the experiences of people in my community,” Windlan says.

For a class assignment, Windlan composed her research insights in a 25-page report on predictive policing, which later was expanded into her current project after receiving the IDEA Grant.

“This course truly challenged and developed my ways of thinking,” Windlan says. “I also gained my incredible mentor, Dr. Mariano, whose encouragement gave me the confidence to keep pushing my research to the next level.”

For Windlan, the next level meant conducting a research project to analyze the impact that predictive policing had on the Pasco County community and the civil rights implications behind other programs like these.

Mariano has continued to mentor Windlan throughout her time at FSU. Introducing her at the showcase, Mariano said, “Ella’s performance was astonishingly impressive. She redefined expectations for every assignment and then exceed them.”

In turn, Windlan appreciates how her learning process has exceled because of Mariano.

“Dr. Mariano was the first professor at FSU who believed in me, and her class set up a chain reaction that has led me to where I am today,” Windlan says.

Windlan’s exceptional commitment and ambition also caught the eye of English department faculty member Tarez Samra Graban, who is an associate professor in the Rhetoric and Composition Program. She mentored Windlan when she was a first-year student in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

“Dr. Graban was more than a research mentor; she represented the type of scholar I hope to become someday,” she says.

Other English professors have served a significant role in Windlan’s success. In her sophomore year, Windlan enrolled in Assistant Professor Mais T. Al-Khateeb’s Advanced Writing and Editing: Technical Writing and Social Justice course, an advanced requirement for the EWM degree.

“This course was transformational,” Windlan says. “It exposed me to a side of English-Rhetoric theory and research that I could see myself doing as an academic practitioner.”

She attributes these strong ties with the faculty and the courses they teach as the pillars for her future careers and interests. To say it frankly, Windlan says, “The EWM program at FSU is simply incredible.”

“Studying language, rhetoric, text, and media is an opportunity to learn how the current moment has come to be” she says. “[The studies are] inherently interdisciplinary. All of life is tied up in language and media.”

Windlan has two more years left in her undergraduate journey at FSU. During that time, she says she will continue to be dedicated to interdisciplinary research and to give a voice to people whose voices have been historically undercredited and ignored.

Kaley Hoppenworth is a double major in English-Editing, Writing, and Media and in social work. She also is the editor in chief for Her Campus at FSU.

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