Members

Jean Goodwin

My primary research interest has been in continuing the classical rhetorical tradition by theorizing civic discourse. Political rhetoric is often seen as contentious, unproductive and filled with attempts to dominate. I take these characteristics as a starting point, and try to articulate the pragmatic norms, practices and strategies that allow deliberative argument to get things done, nevertheless. I am now in the process of adapting my general project to examine the issues that arise when experts like scientists are drawn into the public sphere. In particular, I want to find out how experts and laypeople can participate together in deliberations on agricultural, environmental and food systems policy. My specific foci include: the design—and limits—of appeals to expert authority; rhetorical techniques for helping ordinary citizens "think big," taking into account the large-scale, long-term consequences of existing practices; and how a theory of deliberative democracy can accommodate epistemic inequalities. Curriculum Vitae

Greg Wilson

I've spent most of my professional career working at research institutions, first as a technical writer, then from 2000 to 2008 as a Ph.D. technical staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory. For all of my career I've been fascinated with Kuhn's idea of incommensurability and how to work within technical communities to improve the flow of ideas and to make better science. I am interested in using qualitative research methods within technical communities to understand their discursive practices and to collaboratively map their interdisciplinary knowledge for their benefit (interventionist ethnography). My scholarship draws on applied case studies, rhetorical theory, cultural theory, and science studies. I am currently researching the nature of technical agency (how members of a discipline can change their discipline), how Iowa farmers make decisions about sustainable farming practices, and arguments from technical ignorance (how engineers and scientists argue about artifacts they can't fully test). During my time at Los Alamos, I collaboratively researched and published on topics in statistics, industrial reliability, weapons science, and national security. As a rhetorician, I think a lot about how those topics intersect language and culture. Curriculum Vitae

David Russell

My work on science and technology has all been about science and technology education—writing in the disciplines and professions. My first work was in the history of engineering education, looking at how writing was used. Later I did research on writing in biology, particularly the ways knowledge and documents and power circulate among scientists and with others who are affected by—and often affect—scientists. But the goal of that research was to see how classrooms and students and teachers encounter (or don't) the worlds of science beyond it. This reminds me that at ISU, most of the curriculum is science and technology, broadly conceived, so that ISUComm's "across the curriculum" dimension will almost inevitably involve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics a great deal. My current project is multi-modal simulations of professional work, including science and science education. On our group's project website, you might especially notice the work done for a genetics course (Robert's World) and for Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering (Omega Molecular). The simulation we did for a bioethics (philosophy) course (Golden Rice) has also been the object of research on how students take up arguments and "facts" from popular presentations of science. Curriculum Vitae

Scott Graham

My principle research interests lie within the purview of rhetorics of technoscience. I intentionally use the term "technoscience" to indicate my strong commitment to the idea that the discourses of science and technology do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, I believe science and technology are thoroughly articulated into integrated networks which include social, political, economic, and material programs of action. My work is particularly informed by critical cultural and science and technology studies theorists such as Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour, and Donna Haraway. Within networks of technoscience my primary areas of investigation are 1) the hindrances to and mechanisms of interdisciplinary collaboration and 2) the interplay between structure, regulation, and agency. In investigating these issues, I am currently working on case studies in interdisciplinary approaches to pain medicine, controversy in developing a sustainable bioeconomy, and logics of change in evolutionary biology. Curriculum Vitae

Rachel Wolford

The more I understand the substantial effects of rhetoric when it is purposefully articulated, the more I mean to extend the influence of my discipline as it intersects with science and technology. For example, I am interested in alternative energy research that will offer our planet a much more viable future. At Iowa State, hundreds of scientists from many disciplines are working to achieve common goals in sustainable energy such as biofuels, yet because their fields are often so disparate, they do not always communicate their work effectively to one another. I want to occupy the liminal space of the local rhetorician among the scientists, one who operates within the boundaries of research and communication, studying researchers’ work, finding similarities in their language, and helping facilitate greater success across interdisciplinary projects. My goals are two-fold: 1) to cultivate stronger collaborative research in science and technology and achieve real sustainable fuel solutions, and 2) to create new knowledge from my own research in science and communication to reach a broader audience and effect positive changes in public policy. Curriculum Vitae

David Niedergeses

Since my first training in engineering, I have continued scholarship both in rhetoric and in human-computer interaction with the goal of contributing a legitimate middle voice between the social sciences/humanities and engineering/information sciences. I organize my research efforts around relationships between rhetoric, science, technology, and culture. Most of my research energy goes to projects that examine 1) attention and conviction in digital environments, 2) the coherency of discourse communities in virtual and computer-mediated communication, and 3) public understanding and use of scientific knowledge. In my view, language as used in situ by groups of associated individuals represents the best data we have for understanding human social behavior. I am academically committed to mixed-methods human subjects research under the belief that quantitative and qualitative information understood in concert can paint a clearer picture of most situations. I enjoy teaching classes in technical communication and in pop culture analysis and serving as a writing consultant when not otherwise occupied. Curriculum Vitae

Marcy Leasum

My interest in the rhetoric of science and technology stems from my family’s background in the medical field. One of my earliest memories is walking into my grandfather’s study and seeing all of his medical books. Years later, when I began the graduate program here at ISU, I realized the important role rhetoric plays in science. For this reason, I wrote my thesis on health blogs. I focused on how bloggers’ use personal voice to share the twists and turns of their illness. Additionally, I conducted a small study to investigate how individuals seeking medical information might apply what they are reading online to their own lives. Since completing my thesis, I have continued researching the use of personal voice in communication. I am currently finishing up research that I conducted at a local hospital on volunteer communication and I am also beginning research on how to teach students technology, such as blogging, responsibly. Curriculum Vitae