• ABOUT
  • { History }
  • { Centers & Programs }
  • { Life in the Twin Cities }
• COURSES
• GRADUATE
• UNDERGRADUATE
• NEWS & EVENTS
• PEOPLE
• MAKE A GIFT
• INTRANET

{Home > About > Centers & Programs > IAP > Fellowships : Erin Wais}

Erin Wais

Erin Wais is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric Department. She received the Medtronic Fellowship for 2006-2007.

This project grew out of the current work being done by Medtronic’s Founder Earl Bakken. In addition to his work on pacemaker research, Earl Bakken has dedicated the last twenty-five years of his life to supporting alternative medical practices and interventions. For Earl Bakken the importance of energy and electricity does not begin and end with wires and circuits, but is part of our entire physical and spiritual selves.

I was able to access and research his work and by doing so enrich my own project of examining the place of scientific and technical communication in alternative medicine.

In addition to this research, I asked the question, “What kind of technical communication differences exist between traditional and
western medicine?” Toward answering this question I was able to specifically research the technical communication surrounding pain
mediated devices created at Medtronic and those used in alternative therapies.