Lauren Malone is a military brat who started life in Texas, and ended up in Iowa. She is a fifth year PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Professional Communication. She graduated from Central College with a BA in English, and from London Metropolitan University with an M. in Professional Writing. Her current academic interests include digital rhetoric, justice-centered curriculum design, rhetoric and literature, game studies, and Black American rhetoric. This year she is teaching Analysis of Pop Culture Texts, and is also on the HCI/SOE gamification research team.