research
My research examines how marginalized communities unexpectedly leverage their resources to address complex public problems, and then amplifies the stories of these communities in ways that emphasize the value of their lived expertise. Located at the intersections of Technical/Professional Communication, Public Rhetoric, and the Digital Humanities, my work has been featured in leading journals and edited collections within each of these focus areas. On this page you will find information about some of my ongoing projects and recent publications.
community organizing during appalachia's economic transition
For the last several years, I have been working on several projects related to how rural community organizers address deeply-rooted social, cultural, and economic inequity during a period of transition. My current book project, Against Extraction: What We Can Learn About the Power of Place from Rural Communities, weaves together stories from 11 activists and organizers working to address the needs of vulnerable residents in rural areas, and argues that place is an important aspect of attempts to address deeply complex public problems rooted in justice. Additionally, I am currently facilitating a participatory project with artists and creatives across West Virginia dedicated to addressing cultural inequity in arts spaces.
"Who am I fighting for? Who am I accountable to?”: Comradeship as a frame for nonprofit community work in technical communication." Technical Communication Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2022.2085810 (2022)
lived experiences of gas pipeline development
Using photovoice and walk-along interviews, this project documents the lived epxperiences of landowners and community members living along gas pipeline buildout in rural areas. Issues of environmental justice, place-based knowledge, and corporate-community relationships are central to our findings.
Coercion via eminent domain and legal fees: the acceptance of gas extraction in West Virginia. Environmental Justice. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2021.0093 (2022, with Martina Angela Caretta)
Legitimizing situated knowledge in rural communities through storytelling around gas pipelines and environmental risk. Technical Communication . https://www.stc.org/techcomm/2021/10/27/legitimizing-situated-knowledge-in-rural-communities-through-storytelling-around-gas-pipelines-and-environmental-risk/ (2022, with Martina Angela Caretta)
From a rural idyll to an industrial site: An analysis of hydraulic fracturing energy sprawl in Central Appalachia. Journal of Land Use Science. https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2021.1968973 (2022, with Martina Angela Caretta, Rachael Hood, and Bethani Turley)
contextualization of rural public health data
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, conversations about data flooded public discourse, oftentimes with little attention paid to particular contextual factors, including rurality. This project emphasizes the importance of place in understanding data.
Building towards more just data practices. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2021.3137675 (2022, with Catherine Gouge)
Rural health and contextualizing data. Journal of Business and Technical Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651920958502 (2022, with Catherine Gouge)
participatory visual research methodologies
Because I believe in the importance of community-based research and amplifying the knowledge of communities as expertise, I use and write about participatory and visual research methodologies.
Visual Participatory Action Research methods: Presenting nuanced, co-created accounts of public problems. In Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work: Topics, Theories, and Methodologies (Eds. Rebecca Walton and Godwin Agboka). https://muse.jhu.edu/book/84921 (2021)
Embracing a metic lens for community-based participatory research in technical communication.Technical Communication Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2020.1789745 (2020)
Photovoice methods: Interrogating participant-researcher dynamics through digital, mobile data. In Research Methods for the Digital Humanities (Eds. Lewis Levenberg, Tai Neilson, and David Rheams.). https://doi.org/10/1007/978-3-319-96713-4_8 (2018)
digital platforms as sites of protest
From the very beginning of my scholarly career, I have been interested in how digital protests can enact change in the material world. I have published on several different platforms.
Please Sign Here (And Share It To Your Facebook and Twitter Feeds: Online Petitions and Inventing for Circulation). Computers and Composition https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2019.01.003 (2019)
Metis as Embodied, Techno-Feminist Intervention: Rhetorically Listening to Periods for Pence. Computers and Composition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2018.11.002 (2018)
Navigating Shifting Social Media Networks: An Ecological Approach to Anonymous Mobile Applications. Kairos.http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/22.2/praxis/carlson (2018)