I study digital activism, narrative rhetoric, and public intellectualism, as well as composition pedagogy and writing program administration. Basically, I research and write about everything I do. A few of those threads are highlighted here.
Digital Activism and Rhetorical Force
This in-progress book project examines the practical and theoretical implications of what’s come to be known as “the Blackfish effect.” Blackfish, a 2012 documentary about SeaWorld’s handling of orcas in captivity, sparked real progress in the animal welfare movement–in large part due to its associated hashtag. #Blackfish became a Twitter phenomenon, empowering public protests that dramatically undermined SeaWorld’s profits.
Last spring, activists celebrated two major victories as SeaWorld finally agreed to stop breeding orcas and end their theatrical shows in favor of more natural behaviors and environments. This Blackfish effect, and its continued ripples, demonstrated the significant potential of social media activism in which powerful narratives are circulated with force.
In Forceful Digital Activism, I analyze the primary text in relation to its distribution, circulation, results, and afterlife. This extended case study contributes to rhetorical theories of delivery and circulation, proposing complementary concepts of force and rhetorical momentum. Ultimately, this project also offers strategies for digital design and distribution of activist campaigns.
Public Intellectualism and Academic Publication
I’m one of the founders and biggest fans of Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion, an experiment in connecting academic and popular conversations about rhetoric. Over 9 years, Harlot has published creative, critical, and cool pieces on Pinterest, zombies, prison writing, jazz, infertility, Legos… and so on. The Harlot project engages debates over public intellectualism and offers a practical playground for critical rhetoricians. Producing Harlot, meanwhile, means managing a complex, responsive technological and editorial infrastructure. Both of these threads contribute directly to emerging models of scholarly production.
The support of the rhetoric community has been invaluable; Harlot is truly a collaborative effort among authors, reviewers, editors, and designers. We’re incredibly proud that Harlot publications have been recognized in Parlor Press’s Best of the Independent Rhetoric and Composition Journals series for the past 3 years.
The Harlot project has always been in-process, and it’s reached a transitional stage. To participate in the future of Harlot, check out our Call for Solutions…
Writing Program Administration
This series of projects builds on my experience founding and directing a first-year writing program at my current institution. As a new WPA, I threw myself into research that would help me figure out what I was doing and how I could do it better. Years later, I more calmly pursue questions of student engagement and curricular design.
For a sense of that process and results, check out the in-production (and therefore not perfectly formatted) “Roles & Relationships: Possibilities for Student Participation in Writing Program Administration,” forthcoming from Computers and Composition Digital Press/Utah State University Press. For more on my administrative work, please visit see the Administration page.
Archival Pedagogy
The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN) is an online, public collection of personal stories about literacy in everyday life; it currently contains over 6000 narratives from all over the world. I was lucky enough to hook up with the project in its very first year, and I’ve been working with them ever since. Inspired by conversations about how teachers use the DALN, Michael Harker and co-authored “The Pedagogy of the Digital Archives: A Survey” in Computers and Composition.
And inspired by those rich results, Michael and I have teamed up with Ben McCorkle to edit a digital collection, The Archive as Classroom: Pedagogical Approaches to the DALN. The prospectus has been submitted and revisions are in progress; we anticipate smooth progress toward final publication.