Research Overview
My research examines how marginalized communities use writing and rhetoric to facilitate community through the production and circulation of collective knowledge. Taking a culturally grounded approach to rhetoric and composition, my scholarship reframes disciplinary concepts through the histories, practices, and beliefs of the communities I engage with. Specifically, my work brings rhetoric and composition, technical communication, cultural rhetorics, multimodal rhetorics, and public memory into conversation with Jewish and other non-Western frameworks.
Across my scholarship, I examine how communities draw on inherited rhetorical traditions to negotiate identity, memory, and belonging. I am particularly interested in how rhetorical concepts emerge from lived, everyday practices and how attending to the cultural contexts in which meaning-making occurs can expand our understanding of writing and rhetoric.
Jewish Rhetorics & Cultural Rhetorics
"Constellating Jewish Rhetorics: A Call for New Directions From an Iraqi Jew"
My scholarship on Jewish rhetorics examines how Mizrahi Jewish traditions—those of North African and Arab Jewish communities—have been marginalized within conversations in Jewish and cultural rhetorics. Drawing on Iraqi Jewish commonplaces, this work opens new directions for cross-cultural scholarship on Jewish meaning-making while examining the consequences of conflating Arab Jewish rhetorics with European traditions.
Selected Publications by Area
Technical Communication & Public Memory
"Situating Public Memory as a Keyword in Technical and Professional Communication"
Coauthored with April O’Brien, this article puts public memory into dialogue with technical and professional communication (TPC) to help researchers and practitioners think more rhetorically about the social impacts of their work. By situating public memory as a keyword in TPC, the article demonstrates how attention to past injustices can deepen understandings of present conditions and calls for scholarship that examines TPC's role in shaping public narratives.
Multimodality & Pedagogy
"Cookin’ Up a Multimodal Story: Community-Engaged Writing and a Cultural Rhetorics Cookbook"
This article explores a cultural rhetorics project created in my Advanced Exposition class by my coauthor, Clara Lechowski. Clara’s project, a zine-style cookbook, blends storytelling, family history, and culinary tradition, code-meshing Polish and English to reflect her Polish American identity. We situate the project within the pedagogical framework of the course, presenting it as a model for culturally responsive writing practices. By sharing this work, we invite educators and students to see writing as a means of honoring and engaging with their own home communities.