1 - Ambiguity in Rhetoric and Writing
This is the focus of my disseration, which re-reads a key philosophical work (The Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir) in light of recent theory and weaves that re-reading into rhetorical a pedagogical theory in Rhetoric and Composition today. Through the dissertation, I seek to define, theorize, and operationalize "ambiguity" for theoretical, rhetorical, and pedagogical purposes. The problems we face today, including oppression and marginalization based on identity, environmental destruction and decay, and worsening international and domestic political tensions, necessitate a careful consideration of ethics in our entangled realities. These problems require an approach to ethics that begin realistically from the complexity, contingency, and complicity of trying to make "right" choices and actions on the modern world. We need more robust ways to think, choose, and act through these ambiguous contexts. These issues present a clear exigence for ways of thinking, writing, teaching, and doing that open more possibilities, engage ethics realistically, and seek to build worlds where difference need not be subsumed in the name of inclusion.
My disseration includes chapters on ambiguity in rhetorical theory, composition pedagogy, and rhet/comp praxis. I expect to revise the disseration into a book by the end of the third year of professorship.
My disseration includes chapters on ambiguity in rhetorical theory, composition pedagogy, and rhet/comp praxis. I expect to revise the disseration into a book by the end of the third year of professorship.
2 - Instagram and Multimodal Composition: Digital Rhetoric, Pedagogy, Activism
With over ten years of teaching experience, I'm always looking for ways to innovate my classroom practices and stay relevant to new technologies and modes of communication in students' lives. I started using Instagram in the classroom in 2018, as daily writing/observation journal kind of practice that would allow students to experiment with multimodal composition and build a digital community throughout the semester. In summer of 2020, I used Instagram as a technique to teach digital rhetoric and activism in an Introduction to Women's Studies course.
I currently have an article on the subject under review at Prompt: The Journal of Academic Writing Assignments. I have also proposed and presented on the topic at CCCC and RSA.
I currently have an article on the subject under review at Prompt: The Journal of Academic Writing Assignments. I have also proposed and presented on the topic at CCCC and RSA.
3 - Integrating Trauma-Informed/Care-Based Practices in WPA Work
Since my first semester in my M.A. program, I've been concerned about the Mandatory Reporter policy and the way it shifts and shapes FYW classrooms spaces in particular. As a survivor, I recognized the ways in which Mandatory Reporter training could be redesigned to include trauma-informed/care-based practices. Doing so would allow WPAs to leverage their institutional power to effect large scale change.
I collaborated with Dr. Lauren Brentnell, also a trauma scholar and survivor. Together we presented on the topic at the 2018 Watson Conference and have co-authored a piece currently under review for the Writing Program Administration Journal. The piece articulates the foundations of trauma-informed/care-based practices and uses them to present an assessment inventory for current Mandatory Reporter trainings so that they might be redesigned with survivors in mind.
I will continue this work both in terms of the Mandatory Reporter policy and survivor agency, but also in terms of illuminating other ways in which WPAs can leverage their institutional power to be advocates and arbiters of change.
I collaborated with Dr. Lauren Brentnell, also a trauma scholar and survivor. Together we presented on the topic at the 2018 Watson Conference and have co-authored a piece currently under review for the Writing Program Administration Journal. The piece articulates the foundations of trauma-informed/care-based practices and uses them to present an assessment inventory for current Mandatory Reporter trainings so that they might be redesigned with survivors in mind.
I will continue this work both in terms of the Mandatory Reporter policy and survivor agency, but also in terms of illuminating other ways in which WPAs can leverage their institutional power to be advocates and arbiters of change.
4 - Simone de Beauvoir: Historiography, (Re)visioning, Canonization Politics
I've been influenced by the life and works of Simone de Beauvoir since 2008, when I first read all of the volumes of her autobiography. I have carried that interest with me throughout my doctoral work, finding her text The Ethics of Ambiguity, as the inspiration for my own research into the influence of ambiguity in Rhetoric and Writing.
As a Beauvoir scholar, I focus predominantly on the historiography of her life and work, the politics of canonization within feminist theory, and (re)visioning applications of Beauvoir's philosophy and politics. I have also worked on the notion of "inclusive recovery" as a model for (re)engaging Second Wave white feminism. Working from a Black feminist theoretical perspective and centering the exclusions and erasures in Beauvoir's work, I argue that while Beauvoir is worthy of continued study, use, and expansion in feminist projects today, such engagement must first begin from more critical investigations of problematics in such works. This critical engagement has implications in how we orient ourselves to the feminist canon in our scholarship and our pedagogy.
I am active in the International Simone de Beauvoir Studies Society, have presented at the last three conferences, and am working on a piece for publication for the Simone de Beauvoir Studies journal: "Maxine and Simone: (Dis)orientation, Ambiguity, and Imagination in Existentialist Pedagogy" (submitting Sept 2020).
As a Beauvoir scholar, I focus predominantly on the historiography of her life and work, the politics of canonization within feminist theory, and (re)visioning applications of Beauvoir's philosophy and politics. I have also worked on the notion of "inclusive recovery" as a model for (re)engaging Second Wave white feminism. Working from a Black feminist theoretical perspective and centering the exclusions and erasures in Beauvoir's work, I argue that while Beauvoir is worthy of continued study, use, and expansion in feminist projects today, such engagement must first begin from more critical investigations of problematics in such works. This critical engagement has implications in how we orient ourselves to the feminist canon in our scholarship and our pedagogy.
I am active in the International Simone de Beauvoir Studies Society, have presented at the last three conferences, and am working on a piece for publication for the Simone de Beauvoir Studies journal: "Maxine and Simone: (Dis)orientation, Ambiguity, and Imagination in Existentialist Pedagogy" (submitting Sept 2020).