Shortly after arriving in Slovenia for my Fulbright, I was asked by the US Embassy to make a short (45-sec) video about my work here. In this little vignette, I talk about my teaching in the Filozofska Fakultet (the Faculty of Arts) at the University of Ljubljana. I also discuss some of the cultural activities that I've participated in, including taking Slovenian language lessons, attending a festival for the oldest grapevine in the world, and climbing Slovenia's tallest peak, Triglav. |
I'm honored to share that I have been named as a Fulbright Scholar to the English department at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. This is my second Fulbright, having previously been on one at the University of Montenegro in 2012-2013. With my Slovenian colleagues, I will teach American culture, academic writing, and research communication. I will also further develop my podcasting research, which I share regularly on my Pod Uni podcast.
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Lately, I've been alarmed by the moral panic about AI in education, so I published an article in The Conversation on this topic. Here's the gist: too often, I hear educators worry about AI and cheating. But these concerns are overblown. And frankly, policing students has little to do with education. Text-generating AI tools like ChatGPT pose bigger threats to equity in education than cheating. Educators would be wise to focus more on these inequities. This article was also circulated by RNZ.
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I recently published an article with my colleague Phil Choong (USF) about podcasting pedagogy in College Composition and Communication. Titled "The Student-Podcaster as Narrator of Social Change?" this article argues that although a rhetorical pedagogy oriented around narrative nonfiction podcasting holds modest potential for fostering social change, there remain serious roadblocks to manifesting social change through this kind of pedagogy. |
Recent developments in text-generating AI like ChatGPT have major consequences for writing, communication, and university education. I've written about the implications of these technologies in the media. For The Conversation, I've shown how AI threatens language diversity. For The Spinoff, I've commented on AI's impact on universities, and for the Science Media Centre I've critiqued the research about ChatGPT passing the US Medical Licensing Exam. I've also done two live radio interviews with RNZ.
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With my colleague Kyra Clarke, I co-authored an open access article about intimacy and podcasting in Convergence. Titled "'Listening closely' to mediated intimacies and podcast intimacies in Song Exploder," this article interrogates the non/normative intimacies present in the popular music podcast Song Exploder. It also illustrates how sonic media augment existing understandings of mediated intimacies. |
Just before the summer holidays, I participated in the 2022 Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference. My colleague Dr Beck Wise (UQ) organised our "Octalog" of speakers around the topic of "The Future of Writing and Writing Studies in the Asia-Pacific." My presentation argues that the field Technical Writing needs to attend more to podcasting.
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At the end of the year, I attended a celebration dinner for teaching and research excellence in the refurbished Refectory Building at Massey's Manawatū campus. There I received a medal for the VC's Early Career Teaching Award. Here's a picture of me with Provost Giselle Byrnes, a fellow humanities scholar (a historian).
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I participated in the Disruption, Voice & Listening online conference, hosted by the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research. As one of the eight presenters at this 'flipped' conference, I created a blog post and podcast episode about my research titled "What Kind of Listeners Do True Crime Podcasts Invoke?" I also got to hear a powerful keynote presentation by Professor Salome Voegelin.
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For the last year, I have been a part of a critical theory reading group, led by my Massey colleague Dr Tony Carusi. We just finished reading Foucault's Discipline and Punish, and I'm super excited to read our next book: Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks. If you're interested, Professor Lewis R. Gordon has a great 1-hour video lecture on the book.
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I co-authored a refereed blog post with my Massey colleague, Dr Brian Tweed, for Equity Through Education. Titled "Deadlines/Due Dates as Inequity Generators," we highlight and critique the many ways that assignment deadlines (and even extensions) exacerbate existing inequities in tertiary education.
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The second season of my Pod Uni podcast involves interviews with experts. And I had the great opportunity to interview rockstar science communicator and podcaster Dr Claire Concannon. She currently runs RNZ's Our Changing World, an award-wining science podcast and radio show.
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I participated online in the 2022 Computers and Writing Conference with Dr Philip Choong, Assistant Professor at the University of San Fransisco. Our presentation is part describes the possibilities and limitations of teaching podcasting for social change. Our article on the same topic will be in the December 2022 issue of College Composition and Communication.
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This month, I attended the inaugural NZ Podcasting Summit at AUT. It was a great opportunity to meet and listen to some of Aotearoa's best podcasters, including Melody Thomas and Kirsten Johnstone (Popsock Media), Olivia Shivas (Stuff), and Justin Gregory (RNZ). And a big shoutout to AUT's Lewis Tennant who did a mountain of work bringing this fantastic event together. Thanks heaps, Lewis! For more information about the next event, follow #nzpodsummit on the usual social media platforms.
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This year I was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Early Career Teaching Excellence Award. I'm incredibly honoured to receive this award, which recognises teaching excellence across all disciplines and campuses at Massey University. Teaching is always a collaborative endeavour, so I want to give a hearty shoutout to my colleagues and students from whom I've learned heaps about what it means to teach here in Aotearoa.
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As a member of a public university, it's important to share my expertise not only with my students and fellow academics but also with the larger public. I've been working lately to develop relationships with the media here in Aotearoa, so after creating a profile with the Science Media Centre, I was grateful when a journalist reached out to ask me about my research on true crime storytelling. Here's the link to her article about our growing cultural interest in scam stories.
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I am presenting some early ideas about my latest research project at the Emerging Research in Podcast Studies Symposium. But I'm going to be gone on a hiking trip during the event, so the organisers graciously let me record my 12-min presentation and submit it early. You can watch it here: "Reimagining Justice in True Crime Podcasting." I'm looking forward to viewing the other presentations when I return!
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At the end of the semester, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Fraser Grieg on The Catchup, which is a Manawatū People's Radio programme. As someone who is used to doing the interviewing (rather than being interviewed), it was fun to be on the other side of the table. I was glad to connect with Fraser and his awesome community radio team. And I hope that we'll have the opportunity to collaborate together in the future. Watch this space! |
I recently had an article published in Philosophy and Rhetoric with the rather lengthy title "Plato, Xenophon, and the Uneven Temporalities of Ethos in the Trial of Socrates." While many people see Plato as (mostly) opposed to rhetoric and democracy, I show how Plato's depiction of ethos in the trial of Socrates makes an important contribution to both philosophy and rhetoric. This piece has been a long time in the making, and I'm grateful to all of my colleagues who have helped me along the way.
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This month I'm also attending the inaugural Conference for Antiracist Teaching, Language and Assessment. It runs three consecutive Saturday mornings online, and features keynotes from an incredible array of scholars who have researched, developed, and practiced antiracist writing pedagogies. Check out their work! Vershawn Ashanti Young, Victor Villanueva, Ana Milena Ribero, Alexandria Lockett, and Asao Inoue.
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This week is Te Wiki o te reo Māori (Māori Language Week). I joined over one million other voices in speaking te reo Māori at noon on 14 Sep to commemorate the 1972 delivery of the Māori language petition to parliament. Here's an excellent video about the Māori language movement. And here's a (short!) video of the karakia I recited for the Māori Language Moment online event. This karakia is about tuhia (writing), and I use it in my classes. Kia kaha te reo Māori!
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I'm excited to announce that I have been named a Fulbright Campus Advisor for Massey University's Manawatū campus. Last year, I did mock interviews for postgraduates who were applying for Fulbrights. This year, I'm looking forward to being more actively involved in sharing my own Fulbright experience to help other outstanding researchers prepare their applications. Massey University just landed 4 out of 10 Fulbright NZ awards this year, so congrats to these outstanding women!
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I'm thrilled to share this special issue of Rhetoric Society Quarterly with the world. "Resisting Temporal Regimes, Imagining Just Temporalities" examines the intersection of rhetoric, time, and power. It wasn't easy to do a special issue during the pandemic, but our authors were such outstanding collaborators and produced smart, important pieces. Thanks to Logan Rae Gomez, Diane Davis, Nomi Claire Lazar, Nathan R. Johnson, Meredith A. Johnson, and Ersula Ore. Special shoutout to my colleague and dear friend, Frida Buhre. Our introduction and our article are both open access, so check them out!
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I'm flattered to have won the Innovative Teaching Award for my new course: Get Published. I received lots of positive messages from researchers who took the course about my video and in-text feedback on their writing. Many of them are now fast-tracked to publication, which is great to hear! I know many of my colleagues in the the College of Humanities and Social Sciences have been doing incredible teaching during the pandemic, so it's humbling to receive this honour. I plan to spend this funding collaborating with PhD students on a new research project.
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After a year of not attending conferences during the pandemic, I was grateful to have the intellectual camaraderie of rhetoricians at the Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute. I participated in a 4-day seminar on "Rhetoric, Culture, Technology" and a 3-day intensive workshop on "Documentary Production." I learned heaps from the rockstar leaders Adam Banks, Damien Pfister, Angela Aguayo, and James Chase Sanchez.
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I just launched Pod Uni, a podcast about podcasting! This podcast teaches listeners how to make their own podcast and how to think critically about the podcasts that we listen to. I'm currently applying for funding to grow the podcast beyond these initial episodes. Listen to the podcast on Spotify or where ever you get your podcasts.
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I'm excited to be teaching Aotearoa's first university podcasting course built for both f2f and online learning! Podcasting: Producing Audio Stories is part of the Bachelor of Arts degree, but this introductory course is open to all students regardless of major. In addition to creating their own podcast, students also listen to a premiere lineup of critically-acclaimed podcasts from around the world, including RadioLab, Missing and Murdered, The Messenger, and Conversations with My Immigrant Parents.
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Super excited about this new course I designed for researchers called Get Published. It helps postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career scholars expedite the process of successfully publishing an academic journal article or other scholarly publication. It's designed for all disciplines, including science, social science, humanities, business, and art.
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It's election year in both Aotearoa and the USA, which means it's a good time to be teaching Writing for the Public. Drawing on public sphere theory, this course prepares students to engage in public debate about key social issues in our democracies. At the conclusion of the course, students compose a final digital writing project for a public venue on a topic of their choice.
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This month, I led an international team in launching a new academic podcast: Global Rhetorics. This podcast amplifies the research and teaching of rhetoricians around the globe. Our episodes take a deliberately interdisciplinary and international perspective. We interview scholars working in a variety of countries, cultures, and disciplines about their rhetorically-oriented scholarship and pedagogies. Subscribe and download episodes wherever you get your podcasts!
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Coronavirus has devastated communities around the globe, and it has altered how many educators teach. Because I have both research and teaching experience in online education, I've been fortunate to help instructors modify their f2f courses for online delivery. In conjunction with the Global Society of Online Literacy Educators, I hosted "walk-in webinars" for professors of writing, rhetoric, and communication in multiple countries. Together, we talked about strategies for synchronous and asynchronous online pedagogy. I was impressed with the dedication, care, and empathy that instructors invested in their courses and their students. And I'm truly grateful to work in a field with such outstanding teachers.
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Last week, I wrapped up my first semester at Massey University, and now it's time for summer school in the southern hemisphere! Based on student feedback and consultation with the Centre for Teaching and Learning, I've modified the Science Communication curriculum, and I'm looking forward to seeing how students respond to those changes. In addition to teaching this summer, I plan to jump-start a couple research projects and also to have fun "tramping" (the kiwi term for hiking) through the native bush here in beautiful Aotearoa New Zealand.
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This semester, I was fortunate enough to attend the 7th Rhetoric Society of Europe Conference in Ghent, Belgium. Together with my colleague, Frida Buhre (Uppsala University), we organized two international panels on the topic of "Rhetoric and Time." As part of those panels, I gave a presentation titled "Time, Ethos, and the Trial of Socrates." In addition to the diversity of research projects, I love the lively, sharp, and welcoming community of scholars at this conference. I'll definitely be applying again in the future!
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In 2019, I accepted a job as a Lecturer in Science Communication at Massey University in New Zealand. From my "home base" in the School of English and Media Studies on the Manawatū campus, I collaborate with the Science faculty in teaching writing, speaking, and rhetoric to students across a wide range of scientific fields. It's a wonderfully interdisciplinary position that suits the heterogeneity of my skill sets and interests.
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Between defending my dissertation and moving to New Zealand, I attended the Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute hosted by the University of Maryland. There I participated in a workshop about ethos led by the dynamic duo of Carolyn Miller and Peter Simonson. In addition to the lively multi-day discussion with colleagues, I also visited the Nation Museum of African American History and Culture. It offered a powerful and poignant story about race in America.
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On this date, I successfully defended my dissertation, "Accumulating Character: Time and Ethos in Rhetorical Theory." Although there's much that I want to refine about this project moving forward, I'm glad to have reached this milestone. I certainly couldn't have completed this project without the incredible support of my dissertation committee. I'm especially grateful for the mentorship--and friendship--of my dissertation chair, Dana Anderson, who taught me (among many other things) to write generously. Mil gracias, Dana.
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I'm excited to announce that I have been awarded the Culbertson Dissertation Fellowship from the Indiana University English Department. I am humbled and grateful for this support, which allows me to focus on my research during the upcoming semester. By the end of the fellowship, I plan to have completed my dissertation.
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As part of my dossier, I also submitted an extensive--and I mean EXTENSIVE--teaching portfolio. It contains a self-analysis of my pedagogy, a collection of peer observations and student letters, unabridged evaluations, and more.
If you want to take a look at it, send me an email. I'm happy to share it with you. But fair warning: it's 163-pages!
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