Research

Agenda

My research interests are varied, but they orbit the questions: what do we mean when we teach writing? What is writing? What counts as writing? What writing counts?

With these questions, I'm deeply interested in issues of techne, and how assumptions about what writing is influence our perceptions of what writing does, how one writes, and how and if we can teach writing.

My research examines historiographies of rhetoric and composition using digital humanities methods and data feminist methodologies to examine assumptions about the field and disciplinary epistemologies. I am currently researching 1990s field scholarship for the impressions of techne with an aim to better understand current uptakes of techne and to interrogate current theories and pedagogies relating to technology, invention, and creativity, and how those assumptions influence notions of design and making.

Recent Publications and Presentations

Publications

("Interventions, Ecologies, Reflections: Reframing Student Resistances with Design Thinking")[https://programmaticperspectives.cptsc.org/index.php/jpp/article/view/51]. Co-Authored with Jessi Thomsen. Programmatic Perspectives Vol. 14, no. 2.

In this co-written article, we argue that design thinking, when implemented in technical and professional (TPC) classes, is particularly productive in TPC classes when students leverage—rather than succumb to—the risk and uncertainty of the design process. To address possible resistances and to further support TPC students in inhabiting productive uncertainty, we suggest emphasizing and reframing three aspects of design thinking: orientation towards strong interventions; leveraging human-centered design to build rhetorical awareness as ecological; and reflection as iterative as materially entangled rather than a final step. By emphasizing and reframing these components of design thinking, TPC students find success with overcoming resistances to the uncertainty built into the design thinking process and experience the value of creating projects that meet the needs and challenges of users and situations.

Promises and Perils. Co-Authored with Tarez Samra Graban. Forthcoming in Rhetorica Rising: Advancing Feminist Rhetorical Methods and Methodologies

In this co-written chapter, we trace black women pedagogues using digital methods and tools to examine failure as an important means of historical recovery. In the chapter we argue for the value of these pedagogues in the history of rhetoric and composition, and that tracing failures in digital tools illuminates opportunities for intersectional historiographic work.

Presentations

"Charting Rhetoric: Topic Modeling and Data Visualization." Rhetoric Society of America Biennial Conference

In this presentation I argued that topic modeling and data visualization are potentially useful research methods for working with large textual data sets. This can be especially useful in tracking changes over time and for distant reading of large data sets such as disciplinary publications. I used examples from 1990s rhetorical scholarship as a demonstration of the method.

“Curation, Data, and Feminist Rhetoric.” Feminisms and Rhetorics

In this presentation I argued is that we need to be cautious with the uptake and use of data and computational methods within feminist rhetorical historiography due to the racist, sexist, and patriarchal assumptions that underlie data models and information processing. I propose that a curation is a useful in approaching the use of data and computational methods in feminist rhetorical research, and informs methodologies that include the uses these methods.