Our fantastic department administrative assistant, Emmy Darling, put together these childhood photos of our Department Executive Committee for social media. If only we were all still so cute!!
Author: Robin Jensen
Looking forward to this event! See information below: December’s First Friday Forum will explore how scholars collaborate to produce co-authored work in rhetoric, highlighting both the generative possibilities and the complexities of writing together. Join Dr. Robin Jensen (University of Utah), Dr. Madison Krall (Independent Scholar), Dr. Noor Ghazal Aswad (University of Alabama), Dr. Michael…
Conferencing at NCA, 2025
The National Communication Association annual conference was held in Aurora, CO this year. There is always so much going on at this event that it is difficult not to feel a bit overwhelmed and stretched for time. Miracle of miracles, though, I made it through without major mishap AND I got to touch base with…
Lauren McCluskey Foundation Dinner and Auction
Last month I was lucky enough to get to join a table of my colleagues, students, and friends in the Department of Communication for the Lauren McCluskey Foundation Dinner and Auction. The Lauren McCluskey Foundation is a fantastic nonprofit dedicated to “transforming campus cultures across the nation by promoting awareness, research, and resources to effectively…
PhD student Emma Murdock presents at ICCH
This fall, Emma Murdock traveled with Erin P. Johnson, the lead researcher on a project we are both a part of, to deliver a paper at the 2025 International Conference on Communication in Healthcare (ICCH), held in Ottawa, Ontario. Photo credit goes to my colleague Kim Kaphingst, who was in the audience for the presentation…
Quoted in _The Atlantic_
I was interviewed for this great article by Olga Khazan that just came out in The Atlantic (see the second-to-last paragraph for my quotation): What Women Wish They’d Known Before Trying to Get Pregnant
My New Favorite Office Furniture
This summer, I was thrilled to be gifted this gorgeous library card catalogue from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, my alma mater, complete with original labels following the Dewey Decimal System (these drawers are all from the D’s). HUGE thanks to Drs. Andy King and Abs King for passing this on to me after…
Alumna Jasmine Aguilar Lopez Accepts Position at Pfizer via a Breakthrough Fellowship in NYC
Jasmine Aguilar Lopez is a recent graduate from our program in Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk, and she has been an amazing member of our research team working on exploring the inclusion of fertility information in sex education curricula. This fall, she moved to New York City to begin working at Pfizer as a…
New Book in the JHUP Health Communication series
I was so excited to get to my office this morning to see that a copy of the newest book in the Health Communication series from Johns Hopkins University Press had arrived! Emily Winderman’s beautiful book, Back-Alley Abortion: A Rhetorical History, is hitting the shelves and is the latest addition to our incredible series. It is available…
Alumna Miya Jordan Goes to Medical School
Miya Jordan is a recent graduate of our department and a smart, hard-working member of our research team. She worked with us to publish a recent article on teaching about fertility in sex education classes, and her eye toward the social determinants of health and the community based aspects of health were such a boon…
Archival Gems: The Helen Rodríguez-Trias Papers at CENTRO Library & Archives
This summer I was thrilled to be able to access the Helen Rodríguez-Trias Papers at the CENTRO Library & Archives. Rodríguez-Trias was a community focused pediatrician and women’s health movement leader who fought against sterilization abuse in the 1970s and 1980s. She is an important figure in my current book project, and it was such…
International Communication Association Conference 2025, Denver
I took a quick trip to ICA in Denver to present our research team’s scholarship on the communication of fertility information in secondary school sex-education curricula (shout-out to my co-authors: Dr. Madison A. Krall, Gabrielle Yvonne Garza, Jasmine Lopez Aguilar, and Miya Jordan). I so enjoyed hearing the research presented by my co-panelists on issues…
Graduation Fun
I can’t BELIEVE that it is already graduation season, but here we are and here are some of my favorite photos from the College of Humanities Convocation this morning at the University of Utah. The front image features wonderful colleagues Glen Feighery, Crystal Lumpkins, Kim Kaphingst, and me. Below, the fantastic Leandra Hernandez and I…
Gabby Garza Wins 2025-2026 University Teaching Assistantship!
Our very own Gabby Garza has been named a 2025-2026 University Teaching Assistant by the University of Utah’s Office of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs. This is an extremely competitive award that will see her designing and teaching her own specialized undergraduate course in the new academic year. Way to go, Gabby–the undergraduate students in…
USA Today highlights our research
Our research team (consisting of me, Dr. Madison Krall, Gabrielle Yvonne Garza, Jasmine Aguilar Lopez, and Miya Jordan) recently published a research article in the American Journal of Sexuality Education. This past week the research was discussed in USA Today, and we are thrilled that our findings are being circulated to a larger audience. You…
Communicating about prenatal genetic screening results
Over the past two years, I have had the great privilege of working with an amazing team of reproductive health scholars and professionals on a project that explores how prenatal genetic screening results (particularly results having to do with sex chromosomes) are communicated to patients. This past month, three members of our team (Claudia Geist,…
New Book Forthcoming in JHUP Health Communication Series
I’m thrilled to announce that the next book in the Health Communication series from Johns Hopkins University Press is now available for pre-order and is forthcoming this spring: Shui-yin Sharon Yam and Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz’s Doing Gender Justice: Queering Reproduction, Kin & Care. This book offers a truly groundbreaking analysis of rich and nuanced primary sources…
Cross-Country Research-Team Meeting
You know the stars have aligned well when scholars living in Utah, New Jersey, and Montana can all find a convenient time to meet via Zoom, and at the tail-end of the fall semester no less. What we have been calling our “pill project” is making great progress thanks to the hard work of these…
To the Penn State University (and Drexel) Archives
Last summer I took an amazing trip to the Penn State University Archives, as well as to the Drexel University Legacy Center, to find records of Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens, the first Black woman certified in Gynecology in the United States. Thanks to the fantastic archivists I worked with, boxes of materials were waiting for…
New Book in Johns Hopkins University Press Series in Health Communication
I’m thrilled that Christa Teston’s new book, Doing Dignity: Ethical Praxis and the Politics of Care, is now out with the Johns Hopkins University Press book series in Health Communication! Not only does this gorgeous book have an absolutely striking cover, but the insight Teston offers about the idea of dignity in the present moment,…
The Department of Communication at the University of Utah was very lucky to host the Health & Environmental Justice in Latina/o/x Communities Colloquium this past Friday. The effort was led by the stupendous Drs. Leandra Hinojosa Hernandez and Andy King. What a treat it was to gather in the Edna Anderson-Taylor Communication Institute, directed by…
Public Address Conference
What a pleasure it was to be a part of the graduate mentoring panel at the 2024 Public Address Conference in Austin, TX. The conference as a whole was absolutely spectacular from start to finish. A huge shout-out to Annie Hill, Karma Chávez, and Stacey Sowards for putting together a really top-notch, innovative, and energy-filled…
RSA 2024
The Rhetoric Society of America Conference took place in Denver this past May. It was truly a pleasure to see friends old and new and hear about fantastic ongoing projects. Below, amazing “old friends” I’ve known since graduate school (Jenell Johnson, Christa Olson, and Amy Wan). It’s so strange how none of us have aged…
Olivia Webster graduates with her Master’s Degree in Communication!
This past week was a huge one for the amazing Olivia Webster. She successfully defended her M.A. comprehensive exams, a process that was made possible by her outstanding committee members (pictured below) including Drs. Crystal Lumpkins and Lezlie Frye! She also graduated AND accepted a new position with the Lauren McCluskey Foundation. I know it…
Congratulations to Dr. Kourtney Maison!
This week Kourtney Maison successfully defended her dissertation entitled, Unruly Visions: The Rhetorical Intersections of Humanity, Bodies, and Visual Zoerhetorics. Drs. Kent Ono, Mike Middleton, Angela Smith, and Helene Shugart (not pictured) were there to wish her well and discuss her compelling project. Kourtney is already flourishing in her position as Assistant Professor (and acting…
End-of-the-Year Research Team Meeting
Our research team met last Friday to begin mapping out a paper associated with our interview study. The group is composed of undergraduate Jasmine Aguilar Lopez, Ph.D. student Gabrielle Garza, and graduating undergraduate (and future medical student!) Miya Jordan, as well as Dr. Madison Krall (meeting remotely from Seton Hall University) and me. I’ve had…
Dr. Raquel M. Robvais wins ACLS Fellowship!
My wonderful friend, Dr. Raquel M. Robvais, was just announced as an ACLS Fellow for this coming academic year. Please check out the announcement here: Raquel M. Robvais – ACLS This is an extremely prestigious fellowship, and I can think of no one more deserving of this award than Raquel. Her work ethic, insight, and…
Archival Gems: Sylvia Plath’s Typewriter
During my visit to Smith College, the Special Collections was displaying an exhibit on the author and famed poet Sylvia Path, who had been a student there in the 1950s. I was especially taken by her typewriter, the very one she used at school and then to type out her published writings later on. During…
Smith College Libraries: The Spring Break Edition
This spring break, I took a variety of planes, trains, and automobiles to get to Smith College in Northampton, MA, and to do research in the Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History held in Smith’s Special Collection Reading Room. My visit was a lovely adventure that had me filling out call slips like this one…
Quoted
Last week I was quoted in this really compelling Science article on maternal mortality rates by Meredith Wadman. Check it out here: Have U.S. deaths from pregnancy complications tripled? | Science | AAAS
NCA’s Golden Monograph Award
This past fall I was so excited to receive the National Communication Association’s Golden Monograph Award for an article I published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech in 2022 entitled, “Re-envisioning fertility science: From J. Marion Sims’s invasive gynecology to Sophia Kleegman’s ‘conservative surgery’ hermeneutic.” I am so lucky to have a community of people…
Olivia begins the new year doing excellent community-based, health communication research
Lots of fantastic projects are on the agenda for M.A. student, Olivia Webster, this semester, and she’s able to take it all on with a cat on her head! 🙂 More specifically, she is continuing work with faculty member Marcie Young Cancio and Amplify Utah on a journalism-based storytelling project concerning those experiencing homelessness, and…
Dr. Madison Krall wins the OSCLG Dissertation Award
Please check out this article featured in The Setonian about Madison’s recognition as recipient of a 2023 Cheris Kramerae Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender: Dr. Krall Wins Kramerae Dissertation Award – The Setonian Madison received this recognition for her fantastic dissertation, U.S. Medical Controversy and Its…
Women & Language Forum + OSCLG Conference
Last spring, my wonderful graduate student, Gia Almuaili, and I had the opportunity to contribute to a fantastic forum in the journal Women & Language on the overturning of Roe v. Wade and what the new legislative landscape may entail. It was an absolutely wonderful experience led by W&L editor, Siobhan E. Smith-Jones, and you…
Fall at the U of Utah: College of Humanities Distinguished Scholar Award
Earlier this fall, I was honored to be named Distinguished Scholar by the College of Humanities at the University of Utah. I am so grateful to the wonderful colleagues who nominated me for this award, and I am really treasuring this accompanying beehive-shaped sculpture. It looks great in my office, and it makes me smile…
New Advisee Olivia Webster’s Successful Program of Study Defense
My newest advisee, Olivia Webster, successfully (more than) passed her Program of Study Defense earlier this week. She is exploring the area of critical disability and race studies, as well as health and science communication and community-based methods. Her committee members were all so excited to see the progress that Olivia has made toward her…
Research Meeting
On September 1st, I met with a group of awesome reproductive health students and researchers to begin a new collaboration on the communication of reproductive health information in the secondary-school sex education classroom. Dr. Madison Krall, Ph.D. student Gabby Garza, advanced undergraduate researchers Jasmine Aguilar Lopez and Miya Jordan, and I talked about coding and…
Awesome New Advisee: Gabby Garza
I’m thrilled to introduce Gabby Garza as a new PhD student in the Department of Communication here at the University of Utah and as a new advisee! Gabby’s research focuses on issues of reproductive health, health communication, and environmental communication. To say the least, Gabby’s expertise will be in high demand as we embark on…
Summer Research is My Favorite Type of Research
Cheers to blue skies and piles of amazing books!
Mentoring Breakfast at Old Cuss Coffee Co.
My faculty mentee this year is the amazing Dr. Andy King, which is pretty hilarious because he is always the one teaching me important things. Case in point, I had never heard of Salt Lake City’s Old Cuss Coffee Co., and you’d think I would have because I am often calling myself an ‘ol cuss.…
Grad School Days and 75th Anniversary Talks at UIUC
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit my old grad-school stomping grounds at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This had me going back down memory lane and looking up artifacts from those good days past. For instance, this photo of several lovely grad students in the program willing to come together…
New Article Published in the American Journal of Public Health
My new article on Dr. Hannah Mayer Stone’s work to create medical contraceptive care in the early-to-mid-twentieth century is out in the American Journal of Public Health! The complete article is available to read here. Jensen, R. E. (2023). The First Publication on Contraception in a US Medical Journal, 1928: Hannah Mayer Stone’s Case for…
Meeting with Dr. Aimee Roundtree
Our Rhetoric of Science seminar had the wonderful opportunity last week to talk with Dr. Aimee Roundtree about her fantastic book, Computer Simulation, Rhetoric, and the Scientific Imagination: How Virtual Evidence Shapes Science in the Making and in the News. Dr. Roundtree’s book offers a wonderful analysis illustrating how scientific knowledge creation is grounded in…
St. Patty’s Day Chemical Rhetoric Group Coding Meeting
A subset of the Chemical Rhetoric Group has been working on a project that has required lots of coding. Fortunately, we are all up for finding ways to make that process fun with a nod to St. Patty’s Day and a killer data management system (as you can see below). We should have used shades…
Finding Science in the Special Collections
This week, members of our Rhetoric of Science graduate seminar had the fantastic opportunity to visit the Marriott Library’s Special Collections. Original Cataloger for Special Collections, Allie McCormack (pictured below in the front of the class), prepared an engaging and illuminating presentation about archival search engines, theory, and analysis, and she let us page through…
Sundance Film Festival 2023
The Sundance Film Festival was back to in-person business this year, and I joined a group of fantastic graduate students and friends to traverse up the mountain to see some truly outstanding films and take in the sights in Park City, UT. Some of my favorite films from this year’s festival (keeping in mind that…
Dr. Amanda Boyd’s Research on Health Inequities and Community Participatory Research
The University of Utah has been such a hotspot for amazing speakers lately. We were so lucky to have Dr. Amanda Boyd, member of the Metis Nation of Alberta and Associate Professor in The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, give the B. Aubrey Fisher Memorial Lecture on October 27th. She…
Dr. Leandra Hernandez’s Upcoming Colloquium
This week I’m looking forward to Dr. Hernandez’s colloquium talk on “Critical Health Communication, Reproductive Justice, and Intersectionality: Trends, Media, and Considerations Moving Forward.” What a treat to have Dr. Hernandez visiting and getting us talking and thinking about issues of reproductive justice.
RSQ’s Special Issue on “Global Black Rhetorics” is Published
I’m thrilled to report that Rhetoric Society Quarterly‘s special issue on “Global Black Rhetorics: A New Framework for Engaging African and Afro Diasporic Rhetorical Traditions” is now published. The Special Issue Editors, Ronisha Browdy and Esther Milu, wrote a wonderful introduction to the issue that you can read here–“Global Black Rhetorics: A New Framework for…
Dr. Madison Krall helps on move-in day at Seton Hall University
In her first few days on the job as an assistant professor at Seton Hall University, Dr. Krall decided to join in with other faculty and staff to help the new students on move-in day. Here she is with the SHU Pirate and some of her new colleagues. Here’s wishing all the new college students,…
Gia Almuaili joins the Chemical Rhetoric Group
I’m so pleased to announce that Gia Almuaili has joined us here this fall as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication and that she has already gotten involved with Chemical Rhetoric Group projects. Gia, who is originally from Kuwait, received both her bachelors and her masters degrees in Strategic Communication from the University…
The Chemical Rhetoric Group’s Newest Publication
Our team’s newest publication is hot off the presses at Management Communication Quarterly. Please read the full article at: Cullinan, M. E., Maison, K., Parks, M. M., Krall, M. A., Krebs, E., Mann, B., & Jensen, R. E. (2022). “Seedlings in the Corporate Forest: Communicating Benevolent Sexism in Dow’s First Internal Affirmative-Action Campaign.” Management Communication…
Essay on shifts in gynecological “vision” published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech
I’m really excited that an essay coming from my time as a National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellow has been published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech. This essay follows the changes in gynecological “vision” instituted by the scientific, pedagogical writings of Dr. Sophia Kleegman in the mid-twentieth century, and it compares Dr. Kleegman’s…
Dr. Melissa Carrion quoted in the New York Times
Dr. Melissa Carrion, my fantastic former advisee who is now an Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was interviewed extensively in a recent article published in the New York Times. They Did Their Own ‘Research.’ Now What? – The New York Times (nytimes.com) She discussed research she published…
Graduation 2022
Our department was so excited to graduate an amazing group of Ph.D. (pictured above–photo credit to Avery Holton) and M.A. students this spring. Each and every one of those students has obtained a tenure-track position for the coming fall, and I am so excited to see them off into the next phase of their academic…
National Science Foundation Workshop on Inclusive Language in STEM
Last month, I had the opportunity to travel to San Diego for an NSF-funded workshop on inclusive language in the STEM disciplines. It was a wonderful trip mixing rhetoricians (you can see several of them hard at work if you look closely at the image below–John Lynch at the board, Raquel Robvais looking on from…
Introducing Dr. Madison Krall, in-coming Assistant Professor of Communication at Seton Hall University!
Several weeks ago, Madison entered a Zoom room with her Ph.D. Committee Members and, about two hours later, she left the room having earned a Doctorate of Philosophy (aka, a Ph.D.). She defended her dissertation research beautifully, and her excellent committee members (featured below) offered her amazing feedback and a double dose of CONGRATULATIONS because…
(Some of the) Cats of Chemical Rhetoric
The great thing about Zoom meetings is that you sometimes get a glimpse into the lives and furry companions of those on the other side of the screen. At our last CRG meeting, these adorable fluff balls contributed to the meeting by walking over and perching on the keyboards of Chemical Rhetoric Group members, making…
Me, my mom, and another baby, circa 1980
Whenever I teach feminist communication and history, I can’t help but introduce the second-wave of feminism with this photograph from some time in 1980 or so (mostly because I love the shag carpet and my mom’s glasses and flip-flops). I call it, “Me, My Mom, and Another Baby,” and I’m pretty sure it captures us…
Achival Gems: Zines and more from the Marriott Library Special Collections
Students from my COMM 5950 class on strategic feminist communication and I had the opportunity to check out some of the women-and-gender-oriented archival holdings at the University of Utah’s Special Collections Library earlier this semester. We loved parceling through a sample of the library’s amazing collection of third and fourth wave zines, several of which…
Teaching Classes on Science, Health, and Environmental Communication, and on Feminist Communication in U.S. History
For the Spring 2020 semester, I’m teaching COMM 3115: Communicating Science, Health, and the Environment which focuses on the idea that communication plays a fundamental role in public perceptions of science, health, and the environment. This class provides students with an overview of how these topics tend to be communicated in contexts ranging from the…
End-of-the-semester post-it take-over
My planner is one that goes for five years, so although it says 2019 on the front it covers all the way until 2023. If the post-it note situation I’m dealing with here is any indication, I may be trying to pack too much information into both my planner and my brain. But the end-of-the-semester…
Madison is Elected Secretary of ARSTM at NCA 2021
At the National Communication Association Conference in November, Madison Krall was elected to the position of ARSTM Secretary. ARSTM stands for the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine, and I am very excited that Madison will be taking on a leadership role in this vibrant and growing group of scholars.
Dr. Melissa Parks accepts Faculty Position at Drexel University
Starting in January, Melissa will begin her new position on faculty in the Department of Communication at Drexel University, where she will teach classes and do research focused on non-profit communication. This allows her to draw from her extensive background in environmental, health, and intercultural communication, as well as her experience working with the Peace…
Dow’s “Know More in ’74” inclusion and diversity campaign at NCA 2021
The 2021 National Communication Association Conference was held in November in Seattle and members of the Chemical Rhetoric Group were there and busy. Dr. Megan Cullinan did a wonderful job presenting an analysis our group has been working on with artifacts we garnered from the Science History Institute’s Othmer Library of Chemical History Archives.
Defenses, Defenses, Kourtney Maison and Ashleigh McDonald Pass Their Defenses!
This fall has been a very successful one in terms of academic defenses for our group (please note that, although I used this image from a boxing correspondence course as a header for this post, I’m happy to report that none of our defenses ever turned to fisticuffs). At the end of October, Kourtney Maison…
To the Marriott Library Special Collections we go
Over the past two weeks or so, both my undergraduate “Strategic Feminist Communication” class and my graduate “Rhetoric in the Archives” seminar have made trips to the Marriott Library Special Collections at the University of Utah to look at some of the fantastic primary sources held there and to get some great instruction in finding…
Trip to the Utah State Archives
Last Friday, the students in my “Rhetoric in the Archives” seminar and I traveled downtown to the Utah State Archives, where we were treated by state archivists Ken Williams and Jim Kichas to a fantastic tour of the beautiful facilities there and a peak behind-the-scenes to see a range of astounding artifacts being stored, processed,…
Archival Gems: CRG publishes in Public Understanding of Science
In a new publication headed by Madison Krall, the Chemical Rhetoric Group analyzes the contents of the Science History Institute’s extensive Witco Stamp Collection, which features postage stamps from around the globe that represent chemistry and related sciences from 1910-1938 (see below for some great digitized examples of collection artifacts). You can find an online-first…
Rhetoric Society Quarterly’s Recent Special Issues
As the Associate Editor for Special Issues, I have had the very great pleasure of ushering in the last three special issues of the journal, Rhetoric Society Quarterly. The most recent issue is hot off the presses (2021; see below), and my last and final special issue (which will come out in the summer of…
Project Back-to-Campus/Teaching In-Person
After working-from-home for a year and a half, this semester I will be back in my office and back on campus to teach classes (a graduate seminar on archival methods and an undergraduate capstone class entitled “strategic feminist communication”). This week, I went to campus to try and find the buildings where my classes will…
Madison Krall Takes Part in the 2021 Doctoral Honors Seminar
From July 14th to July 16th of this year, Madison Krall took part in the National Communication Association’s Doctoral Honors Seminar, which accepts just a few of the top Ph.D. students in the field to engage with great established scholars and workshop their dissertation projects. This year, the seminar was held virtually due to the…
The Chemical Rhetoric Group has a Pseudo-In-Person Meeting
Earlier this week, we gathered as many of our group as we could and had a meeting for the first time since March of 2020 (one of us was on Zoom from the east coast, one of us was driving to the meeting on Zoom and arrived in the middle for the physical meeting, and…
Theorizing Chemical Rhetoric in the Journal of Communication
My new article, “Theorizing Chemical Rhetoric: Toward an Articulation of Chemistry as a Public Vocabulary,” has been published in the Journal of Communication! I learned so much in the process of writing this piece and am hoping that it proves useful for others who are interested in how chemistry and its concepts circulate and are…
Archival Gems: Remembering Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi
I found this little gem a few years back at the Schlesinger Library (pardon the poor photography). The library didn’t end up having much on Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi’s communications concerning infertility and reproductive health, which is what I was looking for, but it did have this excerpt from an obituary written about Jacobi on…
Drs. Parks and Cullinan Earn Top Paper Award
Megan and Melissa learned recently that their paper, “Art-as-Pedagogy for Environmental Activism: The Rhetoric of Washed Ashore’s Ocean Plastics Exhibition,” won the Top Paper Award at the 2021 Conference on Communication and Environment (COCE). Woot, woot! Here is the announcement on Twitter. Their research is funded by a 2019 National Geographic Early Career Grant. I…
Exclusive Chemical Rhetoric Group Zoom Party
At the end of April, we had a Chemical Rhetoric Group soiree, via Zoom. As you might imagine, the whole thing was very exclusive and very, very fancy in that it included science-themed party favors and a viewing of a new NOVA “Beyond the Elements” episode wherein we learned about some of the differences between…
Madison Krall named a Steffensen-Cannon Fellow for the 2nd year in a row
This past spring, Madison learned that she was awarded a Ellen Christina Steffensen Cannon Scholarship for the second straight year to complete her dissertation project exploring regulatory rhetoric, thalidomide, and women’s reproductive health and medicine. Find out more about this outstanding recognition, which is bestowed on those pursuing “excellence in their chosen fields of Education…
Dr. Benjamin Mann accepts Assistant Professor position at Eastern Oregon University
Starting this coming fall, Ben will join the faculty at Eastern Oregon University as an Assistant Professor of Communication in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences! Below, see Ben during a recent visit to the area enjoying the beautiful, wooded mountains of La Grande. I can’t wait to hear about the fantastic adventures…
Dr. Melissa Parks’ research highlighted in NCA’s Communication Currents
Melissa’s Text and Performance Quarterly essay, “Ecocultural adjustment: Revisiting acculturation through a Peace Corps sojourn,” has recently been featured in the National Communication Association publication Communication Currents, which translates communication scholarship for lay audiences. Check out the Communication Currents piece here, and find links to Melissa’s original article here, with the complete citation below. Parks,…
Searching for Chemical Landmarks–a visual history and new publication in the journal, Science Communication
The journal Science Communication recently published our article “Strategic Place-Making and Public Scientific Outreach in the American Chemical Society’s National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program.” More than any other piece we’ve written as a group, I think this one had us working together as an interconnected unit the most. It involved traveling to (and finding!) multiple,…
Megan and Rio’s Ghost House Adventures
Dr. Megan Cullinan (Chemical Rhetoric Group Member; Faculty at Merrimack College in North Andover, MA; all-around cool person) and her partner Rio Sabella (woodworker; jack of all trades; all-around cool person) have taken on one of the most intriguing projects I’ve ever heard of for the summer: they are serving as caretakers for a house…
Humanities Radio
Last week, Jana Cunningham interviewed me for the new University of Utah Humanities Radio Podcast. She asked about my research on Dr. Sophia Kleegman, specifically, a person who I have had a lot of fun learning about through my current NEH project on the history of infertility science. You can catch our conversation HERE. Thanks…
You know you study communication when . . .
you see this cross stitch pattern and think it is HILARIOUS because . . . it references the Toulmin Model of argumentation. Several hours later, you realize it probably refers to a search warrant. But you still use it in your classes (to teach the Toulmin Model) and laugh and laugh for the first reason,…
Winter Adventures in Utah
Utah always provides opportunities for fun and a break from research in the wintertime, even during a pandemic!
Celebrating the Elements (and Coding) on Zoom
Last week, members of the Chemical Rhetoric Group met via Zoom to do some coding and celebrate the elements. Of course we dressed up. Below you will see (clockwise): -Me as boron: element number 5 (usually gray-ish in color, this metalloid produces bright green flames when set on fire). -Megan Cullinan as mercury: element number…
A Zoom Hat Party
Last week, the Chemical Rhetoric Group convened via Zoom for a very exciting hat party to celebrate some great successes we’ve had recently. We used this opportunity to show off our most fabulous hats, share science-oriented puns, and–as you can see in this photo–put some very cute cats in hats. Stay tuned for the theme…
Blast from my TA-past
I received a surprise email from my former professor, Dr. Ruth Anne Clark, earlier this semester. Dr. Clark was in charge of teaching me how to be a teaching assistant and instructor when I first came to graduate school at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in (wait for it) 2001. That semester I had been…
Madison Krall presents top paper at NCA 2020
Madison Krall’s paper was featured on the Top Student Papers in Theatre, Film, and New Multi-Media panel at the National Communication Conference this year. Entitled “Dirty Dancing’s Stagnating Subplot: Critiquing the Commemorative Control of Film for U.S. Public Memory,” Madison’s research in this project ties into her dissertation work exploring the regulatory history of women’s…
Dr. Mann presents a Top Paper at NCA 2020
Ben’s paper, “Theorizing Intersectional Stigma Management Communication at the Crossroads: LGBTAIQ+ and Autistic Subjectivities,” was featured on the Disability Issues Caucus Top Paper Session at the National Communication Association Conference this year. This research comes out of Ben’s dissertation work and draws from 30 interviews Ben did with individuals who are both LGBTQIA+ and autistic…
Tea-ing in the New Year
I have always liked tea, but the pandemic and lots of time at home near a teapot has developed in me something like a burning, chemical love for tea. Add to that not one but two tea advent calendars for the holidays and I’ve become a tea-enthusiast to-the-brim (har, har, har). My favorites are English…
ARSTM Article of the Year Award
The Chemical Rhetoric group was incredibly honored this year to receive the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine‘s Article of the Year Award for our article, “Mapping Nature’s Scientist: The posthumous demarcation of Rosalind Franklin’s Crystallographic Data.” Check out this beautiful plaque! Many thanks to ARSTM for the organization’s support.
Another Parks Dissertation Award!
Dr. Melissa Parks won the 2020 Dissertation Award in Environmental Communication from the National Communication Association for her dissertation, “From Redwoods Preservation to Genomic Restoration: Genocentric Ecologies in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries.” Woot, woot! Read about the award and Melissa’s research, here.
(Virtual) Keynote Address for Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science’s 5th Annual Women in Science and Healthcare (WiSH) Symposium
On September 10, 2020, I was honored to give the keynote address for Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science’s 5th Annual Women in Science and Healthcare (WiSH) Symposium. This was especially exciting in this particular year because the symposium was celebrating what would have been crystallographer Rosalind Franklin’s 100th birthday, and Rosalind Franklin’s niece,…
Dr. Benjamin Mann accepts Post-doc position at Dixie State University
This fall, Dr. Benjamin Mann began a new position as a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Communication at Dixie State University in the College of Humanities and Social Change. In this position, Ben serves as a full-time faculty member, instructor of Communication courses, and researcher. Find out more about this position and Ben’s research and teaching, here…
Dr. Melissa Parks accepts Post-doc position at University of CA, Santa Barbara
This fall, Dr. Melissa Parks began her tenure as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Humanities and Social Change Center. There she is working with an interdisciplinary team of scholars to explore issues of social change related to the environment, science, technology, and the broader culture. You can find out more…
Madison Krall Wins 2020-2021 Steffensen Cannon Fellowship
Last spring, Madison learned that she had been awarded a 2020-2021 Steffensen Cannon Fellowship to support her dissertation research on regulatory rhetoric and the mid-twentieth century thalidomide disaster. See our departmental announcement of Madison’s award, here. Find out more about the competitive Steffensen Cannon Fellowship, here. The fellowship was established at the University of Utah…