Dr. Pokharel and I have been busy doing research on reproductive health and fertility perceptions. Thanks to Manu, I have enjoyed getting a bit outside of my comfort zone and spending some time working in the realm of quantitative methods!
Author: jensenrobine
National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship
At the beginning of the year, I learned that I had been awarded a 2020-2021 National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship. I am so excited to have the support of the NEH as I work on my next book project. For more information about the project and the award, see the College of Humanities…
Chemical Rhetoric in a Pandemic
These past months have been strange and scary in so many ways. At least I have an awesome mask to wear made by the amazing Suchitra Shenoy Parker!
Dr. Melissa M. Parks
In the spring semester, Melissa defended her dissertation successfully and became a PhD! The University was closed because of the pandemic, so she had to defend her work to her committee over a Zoom meeting. A traditional defense experience it was not, but certainly a memorable one! Well done, Dr. Parks! P.S. I have a…
Spring Break Work Day
Right before everything shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chemical Rhetoric Group spent a wild day on-campus working through research projects. We planned, wrote, brainstormed, ordered lunch, and then wrote some more. You know, all of your typical Spring Break shenanigans.
Melissa Parks is a Tanner Humanities Center Graduate Fellow!
Last spring, Melissa Parks was named a Tanner Humanities Center Graduate Fellow! She has been funded this year by the Center to work on her dissertation project, and this past month she presented a talk for the College of Humanities at the University of Utah on her work (see below).
Melissa M. Parks Publishes an Article in Nature + Culture!
Check out Melissa’s newest publication in Nature + Culture, “Explicating Ecoculture: Tracing a Transdisciplinary Focal Concept.” Way to go, Melissa!
Dr. Benjamin W. Mann
You can call him Dr. Mann! In mid-December, Benjamin Mann successfully defended his dissertation, “Intersectional Stigma Communication, Demi-rhetoricity, and Critical Health Communication: Affirming (Neuro)queer Subjectivities.” His committee members agreed that he had put together an important project grounded in interviews with hard-to-reach and often overlooked individuals and that his research would go a long way…
NCA 2019 Conference in Baltimore, MD
We had a grand showing at this year’s NCA! Melissa Parks received the Benson-Campbell Dissertation Research Award from the Public Address Division, and our research team presented three competitively selected papers–two of which were highlighted on top paper panels (ARSTM and the American Studies Division).
The Chemical Rhetoric Group publishes its study on “brain chemistry” and medicalizing news coverage!
We are excited that our article, “Medicalization’s Communicative Infrastructure: Seventy Years of ‘Brain Chemistry’ in the New York Times” is now published in the journal Health Communication and available here. In this piece, we trace the rhetorical strategies used across time and diagnoses to situate social conditions within the medical domain. This was a project…
The Chemical Rhetoric Group’s Article on Rosalind Franklin is hot off the press!
Our article, “Mapping Nature’s Scientist: The Posthumous Demarcation of Rosalind Franklin’s Crystallographic Data,” is available here from the Quarterly Journal of Speech. We began the research for this piece at our 2017 Writing Retreat in Park City, UT, and it is so much fun to see it published after lots of hard work. We hope…
Melissa M. Parks wins the Benson-Campbell Dissertation Research Award!
Melissa has been recognized with the 2019 Benson-Campbell Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association’s Public Address Division for her dissertation project, “From the Redwoods Conservation Movement to Genome Mapping: Genetic Ecologies of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.” She will be recognized for her project’s “conceptual rigor, important focus, and innovative approach” at the Public…
Benjamin W. Mann is selected to attend the 2019 Doctoral Honors Seminar!
Last July, Ben traveled to the University of South Florida after being selected to take part in the National Communication Association’s Doctoral Honor’s Seminar. The seminar’s theme was “Communication, Engagement, and Social Justice,” which fit perfectly with Ben’s dissertation project on the negotiation of intersectional stigma. He joined excellent faculty leaders and other outstanding doctoral…
Madison A. Krall wins a Rhetoric Society of America Institute Graduate Development Grant!
This summer, Madison won an RSA Institute Graduate Development Award to support her archival research and her travel to the RSA Institutes’ Seminar on Medical Rhetoric in the Archives. And, in other great RSA news, the University of Utah chapter of RSA–Retorica Elevada–was recognized at this year’s Institutes with the Outstanding Student Chapter Award for…
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend
Last spring I was awarded a Summer Stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities to work on a project entitled, Julia Ward Howe, Helene Deutsche, and Sophia Kleegman: 20th-Century Women Shaping the Science and Medicine of Fertility. To read more about this project and the award, click here.
The 2019 Alta Argumentation Conference
The University of Utah local-host team did a bang-up job helping make sure the conference went as planned. Our registration table was on-point, if I do say so myself. And a number of students and faculty gave fabulous talks about various aspects of the conference theme on local argument.
Melissa Parks Heads to the Taft-Nicholson Center for the 2019 Summer Season
For the second year in a row, Melissa Parks has been named a fellow and education coordinator at the University of Utah’s Taft-Nicholson Environmental Humanities Center in Beaverhead County, MT. She will spend the summer helping to keep the center running, giving research talks, and otherwise supporting the many research and educational endeavors the center…
Madison Krall and Robin Jensen take part in RSA’s “Medical Rhetoric in the Archives” Seminar
In the beginning of June, Madison and Robin headed to the University of Maryland to take part in a Rhetoric Society of America Institute Seminar entitled, Medical Rhetoric in the Archives. Robin worked with the amazing Professor Jordynn Jack to lead the seminar of about 30 scholars through a variety of readings, discussions, and activities…
Melissa Parks Participates in the 2019 Rhetoric Society of America Project
From May 20-23, Melissa Parks joined with other scholars and community activists in Reno, NV to take part in the RSA Project in Power, Place, and Publics: Rhetorical Cartographies. The group as a whole focused on rhetorically analyzing the University of Nevada, Reno Campus Master Plan. Melissa’s specific working group, led by Professor Bridie McGreavy…
A trip to the Harvard Archives
In mid-May I hopped a plane to Boston and made my way to Cambridge, MA to spend a week searching for archival documents concerning chemistry, women’s history, and reproductive health (not necessarily in that order).
Benjamin Mann presented on Chemical Rhetoric at ICA 2019 in D.C.
Registration was popping, as was the audience that gathered to hear the panel on which Ben spoke. We are excited to use the feedback we received for revisions! While in D.C., Ben visited the National Museum of American History to check out some of their science-oriented collections.
End-of-the-Year Workday
We had a great day-long writing retreat over finals week this semester. The new Gardner Building on campus, which overlooks the mountains and the football stadium, was a great place to work on our projects.
Department Par-tay
The Department of Communication at the University of Utah gathered last week to celebrate some of our accomplishments and have some flashy fun!
Maya Kobe-Rundio Wins the College of Humanities Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award!
Senior honors student Maya Kobe-Rundio will graduate this spring with a degree in Communication and the 2019 College of Humanities Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award. Read more about her amazing work here.
Benjamin W. Mann Wins an NIH-Funded UCEER Fellowship!
Benjamin Mann recently learned that he has been awarded an NIH-Funded UCEER (Utah Center for Excellence in Ethical, Social, and Legal Issues Research) Fellowship for the 2019-2020 school year! Way to go, Ben!!
Chemical Rhetoric Goes to Wicked!
Madison and I hit the Eccles Theater here in Salt Lake City a few weeks ago to catch the musical Wicked. It was fantastic and had nothing to do, necessarily, with either rhetoric, or chemistry, or health communication, so we are still trying to figure out how to incorporate our findings into the next lab…
Five Questions with Me: The National Communication Association Spectra Edition
https://www.natcom.org/nca-inside-out/5-questions-withrobin-jensen
Winter Break Writing Retreat 2019–Chemical Rhetoric Takes on Public Libraries in Salt Lake City
Right before heading into the spring semester, we braved the cold to spend one day at the downtown Salt Lake City library and one day at the Marmalade branch of the city library. It was great changing up our surroundings a bit and, of course, working on our research projects.
Chemical Rhetoric Takes on Friday Night
Last Friday night, Melissa Parks, Madison Krall, and Emily Krebs took over one of our lecture halls to analyze documents. From all accounts, they absolutely lit the place up with their on-point analysis and witty repartee, not to mention their array of post-its, highlighters, and La Croix. Way to teach us all how to live-it-up…
Benjamin Mann publishes an article in Communication, Culture & Critique!
Benjamin Mann published his article “Rhetoric of online disability activism: #CripTheVote and civic participation” in the ICA journal Communication, Culture & Critique. Well done, Ben!!
2018 NCA Conference Brings Many Top Paper Recognitions for Current and Former Students!
My current and former students are amazing! At the 2018 National Communication Association Conference in Salt Lake City, they earned a mind-boggling number of top paper recognitions. Melissa L. Carrion, my former PhD student and now an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University, won the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine’s Article…
Park City Writing Retreat 2018
Scenes from our 2018 Park City Writing Retreat! Benjamin Mann, Melissa Parks, Kourtney Maison, Madison Krall, Emily Krebs and I spend these last few days analyzing primary sources, brainstorming, writing, re-writing, and accomplishing a ton of research goals. We also laughed, ate, and tried to figure out how to turn the malfunctioning fire alarm off…
Celebrating Dr. Celeste Condit and Reproductive Justice at the Public Address Conference
What fun it was to meet up with some of my favorite people in Boulder, Colorado to talk about the amazing work of Dr. Celeste Condit and speak to issues of reproductive justice and health! Below are a few scenes from the event, beginning with the honoree, Dr. Condit, responding brilliantly and humbly (as…
The Art of Science Communication
On September 26, 2018, I spoke in Denver, CO on a National Communication Association-sponsored public panel concerning science communication. Other (amazing!) panelists included Leah Ceccarelli, Celeste Condit, Lisa Keranen, John Lynch, and J. Blake Scott. See the complete program here.
Teaching COMM 3115: Communicating Science, Health, and the Environment
The sneaky and awesome Emily Krebs caught me teaching my class in sunglasses last week because the lights wouldn’t dim. I don’t always teach about science, but when I do I like to look super cool.
Maya Kobe-Rundio is Named the Tanner Humanities Center Undergraduate Research Fellow
The amazing honors undergraduate student that I’m mentoring, Maya Kobe-Rundio, has been named a 2019-2020 Tanner Humanities Center Undergraduate Research Fellow. This fellowship will support her thesis research, “In Her Element: Outdoor Recreation as a Tool for Female Empowerment and Community Building.” Read more about Maya’s work, as well as the work of my colleagues…
Melissa Parks Serves as a Fellow at the Taft-Nicholson Environmental Humanities Education Center
This past spring, Melissa Parks was named the inaugural field experience graduate fellow at the Taft-Nicholson Environmental Humanities Education Center in Lakeview, MT. She spent the summer in Centennial Valley working with director, Mark Bergstrom, to further the Center’s mission concerning environmental education and communication. Way to go, Melissa!!
NCA 2018 Health Communication Preconference
See below for information about the program, “Welcome to the Sandbox.” I will be giving a talk with Dr. Teri Thompson entitled, “Mastering Publishing: Tips and Tricks for Journal Articles and Books.” Join us for the Health Communication Division’s Doctoral Student and Early Career Faculty Health Communication Preconference At the 2018 National Communication Association Annual…
Science History Institute Museum
The Museum inside the Science History Institute is open to the public and offers a fantastic overview of chemical history in a beautiful space.
Sites in Old Town Philadelphia
I loved wandering around Old Town. Above is an installation outside the Arch Street Meeting House. Below is the Liberty Bell, Benjamin Franklin’s grave, Christ Church, the Betsy Ross house, Luna Café (not quite as famous as the rest, but still fun), the Irish Immigrant’s Memorial, and the Franklin Fountain.
Trip to the Science History Institute in Philadelphia
Earlier this year, I won a travel grant to visit the Othmer Library of Chemical History at Philadelphia’s Science History Institute. This allowed me to spend the last week in June combing through the library’s tremendous archives and exploring Old Town Philly. This is me taking up residence in the Othmer Library. The archives are…
Medical Rhetoric in the Archives–a 2019 RSA Summer Seminar
Next summer, the amazing Jordynn Jack and I will be teaching a 2019 Rhetoric Society of America Summer Seminar entitled “Medical Rhetoric in the Archives.” The course will meet from Monday, June 3rd to Thursday, June 8th at the University of Maryland, and the class as a whole will make a trip to the National…
Health Rhetoric and Social Justice 2018
On September 27, 2018 at the CU Boulder campus I’ll be taking part in the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Preconference Symposium, which will proceed the 2018 Public Address Conference. The Preconference will honor Celeste M. Condit for her amazing work in this area (see here for an amazing oral history interview with Dr. Condit)…
My Favorite Source for Finding Great Books to Read
By the Book If only all book reviews were written as interviews with authors.
Benjamin Mann heads to the Rhetoric Society of America Conference in Minneapolis
Ben presented two papers in the City of Lakes, and no doubt took the conference by storm!
The first issue of the new journal, Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, is hot off the press!
Click here to check out the issue’s compelling introduction by journal editors Lisa Meloncon and J. Blake Scott, as well as fantastic articles by Lisa DeTora, Celeste Condit, S. Scott Graham, Mary Lay Schuster, Colleen Derkatch, and more. Below, editor Lisa Meloncon and I coordinate at the 2017 Rhetoric of Health & Medicine Symposium.
Book Riot’s 100 Must-Read Books About the History of Medicine
Check out number #56–woot, woot!
I was interviewed for two podcasts that focus on reproductive health and infertility
The first is called Waiting for Babies, and you can listen here! Host Steven Mavros asks great, informed questions, and was such a pleasure to talk with. The second is called Beat Infertility, and you can listen here! Host Heather Huhman has one of the best radio voices I’ve ever heard, and her podcast was…
The Chemical Rhetoric Group Goes to Riverdance!
Melissa Parks and I attended a Riverdance 20th Anniversary Tour performance last weekend. We plan to integrate what we learned into our research on chemical rhetoric. These dancers are not kidding around. If you look very closely, you will actually see Melissa and I dancing in the cast below. There we are . . .…
The ART of Infertility and One More Shot film screening
The ART of Infertility art exhibit visited Salt Lake City last month and featured the original art by Abigail Glass featured on the cover of my book. It was so amazing to see the work in person. I even got a Twitter shout-out from the Pennsylvania State University Press:). The exhibit’s showing was sponsored by…
Ben Mann publishes two articles!
Chemical Rhetoric Group member and Ph.D. student Benjamin W. Mann has been knocking it out of the park with not one but TWO new publications that have just come out. In the journal Health Communication, he has an article entitled “Autism Narratives in Media Coverage of the MMR Vaccine-Autism Controversy under a Crip Futurism Framework.”…
Madison Krall Throws Her Hat With Mary Tyler Moore!
Over the holiday break, Madison Krall found her way to the Mary Tyler Moore statue in Minneapolis. She was inspired to do so after reading Bonnie Dow’s fantastic book Primetime Feminism in my class on Strategic Feminist Communication. Props to Madison’s mom for taking this great photo in -10 degree weather!
Review of Infertility is Published in Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Richardson_2017_Review of Infertility_Bulletin of the History of Medicine The author of this review, Sarah S. Richardson, is a professor of History of Science and of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University. She is also the author of this really important Nature article on the implications for women of recent epigenetic-inspired public commentary.
Anyone Else Compulsively Take Photos of Their Completed To-Do Lists?
No? Just me then?
Maud May Babcock Plaque Featured in Downtown SLC
Founder of the Department of Speech at the University of Utah, Maud May Babcock was also the University’s first female faculty member. Today she is recognized with this plaque in downtown Salt Lake City. Over the years, Professor Babcock inspired many to achieve academic prominence. Most recently, doctoral students in the Department of Speech Communication…
Presenting Blake Scott with the Health Communication Division’s Distinguished Book Award at NCA 2017!
I had the great honor of presenting Blake Scott with the 2017 Health Communication Division’s Distinguished Book Award. His book, Risky Rhetoric: AIDS and the Cultural Practices of HIV Testing, instigated the sub-field of rhetoric of health and medicine and is long overdue for recognition. Congratulations Blake!
Winter Break Reading
All of these are outstanding. Two of them I bought as gifts for other people and then couldn’t stop reading them. One was a gift–thank you Gretchen Jensen! None of them have to do directly with my research, which made them a really nice way to take a break.
The 2017 Winans-Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Public Address
Posing, above, with all of the 2017 awardees (including two others from the University of Utah–Julia Moore and Stacey Overholt!). Posing, below, with some of my favorite people and scholars: Lisa Corrigan, Debbie Hawhee, and Mary Stuckey (left to right).Receiving the award from the president of NCA, Stephen Hartnett. For more information about the James…
More Scenes from Our Fall Writing Retreat
Madison kept smiling under a pile of articles. We caught Ben deep in concentration.Melissa displays one of our manuscript plans on poster board.At this point, we probably needed a break!Kourtney and Robin celebrate an “as seen on TV” prize–the Futzuki–while Madison tries to keep working.Kourtney making use of one of our “as seen on TV”…
2017 Park City Writing Retreat Preview
At the beginning of this week, the Chemical Rhetoric Group met in Park City to work on two different group projects. We went through a huge amount of primary data and enjoyed our time in the orange-and-yellow-colored mountains. More photos to come! Madison and Ben sort, organize, and code. We flowed our progress. And we…
Keynote Address at the 2017 Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Symposium
Last week I headed to the University of Cincinnati for the 2017 Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Symposium. I had the pleasure of finally meeting the amazing Lisa Meloncon (pictured above); who has overseen the symposium since its start in 2013; catching up with my friend and extremely smart former advisee Melissa Carrion (also pictured above);…
The 2017 Alta Argumentation Conference at Snowbird Resort is in the Books!
Professor Robert Asen gave the keynote address entitled, “Disavowing networks, affirming networks: Neoliberalism and its challenge to democratic deliberation.” The conference was held at Utah’s Snowbird Resort, which provided a beautiful setting to deliberate. A panel on “Trump in the network of ideological argument” was standing room only. Here, Professor James F. Klumpp introduces the…
Chemical Rhetoric has some great summer lab meetings!
Kourtney Maison, Ben Mann, Melissa Parks, and I brainstormed and strategized about moving forward with several different projects. Who says summer isn’t a great time to talk research turkey?!?
The Conference Schedule is Up for the Alta Argumentation Conference, July 20-23
http://2017.altaconference.org/ I can’t wait to see you there!!
Robin with an E
I found this article today where the author writes that Robin M. Jensen, a professor of theology at Notre Dame, “must be fairly tired of being confused with Robin E. Jensen, a professor at Utah and author of Dirty Words: The Rhetoric of Public Sex Education. Perhaps they both are.”
Chemical Rhetoric goes to ICA in San Diego
The International Communication Association Conference in San Diego included fun, visits with friends, and a talk about public perceptions of the female fertility timeline with my amazing co-author Nicole Martins. Dinner with former Purdue-ites Andy King and Courtney Scherr. Catching up with Josh Barbour over a smoothie.
Dr. Cara Finnegan wins the Rhetorical and Communication Theory Faculty Mentorship Award!!
Here Dr. Cara Finnegan–winner of the 2017 Rhetorical and Communication Theory Faculty Mentorship Award–is shown with some of her former students. From left: Jennifer Mercieca, Jennifer Jones Barbour, Robin Jensen, Cara Finnegan, Jiyeon Kang Billie Murray introduced Cara beautifully before presenting her with the award at NCA in Dallas. Dr. Finnegan’s advisees pose in 2005 with…
New book published!
In 2016, I published my second book, Infertility: Tracing the History of a Transformative Term, with the Pennsylvania State University Press in the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) Series in Transdisciplinary Rhetoric. This book demonstrates that, throughout the last century, the inability of women to conceive children has been explained by discrepant views: that…
The incredible Angela Ray visits Utah as the B. Aubrey Fischer Memorial Lecturer
Dr. Ray’s engaging B. Aubrey Fisher Memorial Lecture was entitled “A Green Oasis in the History of my Life: Race and the Culture of Debating in Antebellum Charleston, South Carolina.” Here she is pictured after her lecture with me and Dr. Kent Ono. Dr. Ray was also kind enough to offer a seminar with faculty…
Rhetoric Writing Retreat 2014
In October 2014, I hosted a rhetoric writing retreat in beautiful Park City, UT. We rented a gigantic house with a wonderful view of old town, and spent several days crafting manuscripts. Below Danielle Endres, Julie Snyder-Yuly, and Masha Sukovic type away, and below that Cindy Koenig Richards finds a cozy place to think and…
Attending the Dale E. Brashers Mini-Poster Session at NCA
Utah Rhetoric Films a Music Video
Illinois Rhetoric Alums in a Photobooth
First book published!
On CBS Sunday Morning talking about Amelia Earhart
Celebrating a great seminar with hats
The 2007 Wrage-Baskerville Award in Public Address
RSA in Memphis
