1st Edition
Methodologies for the Rhetoric of Health & Medicine
This volume charts new methodological territories for rhetorical studies and the emerging field of the rhetoric of health and medicine. In offering an expanded, behind-the-scenes view of rhetorical methodologies, it advances the larger goal of differentiating the rhetoric of health and medicine as a distinct but pragmatically diverse area of study, while providing rhetoricians and allied scholars new ways to approach and explain their research.
Collectively, the volume’s 16 chapters:
- Develop, through extended examples of research, creative theories and methodologies for studying and engaging medicine’s high-stakes practices.
- Provide thick descriptions of and heuristics for methodological invention and adaptation that meet the needs of needs of new and established researchers.
- Discuss approaches to researching health and medical rhetorics across a range of contexts (e.g., historical, transnational, socio-cultural, institutional) and about a range of ethical issues (e.g., agency, social justice, responsiveness).
Introduction
Lisa Meloncon, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Cincinnati
J. Blake Scott, Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Central Florida
Part I: Identifying Foundations
Methodological Approaches to Medical Rhetoric: Creating a Collective Body of "Recognizable Knowledge"
Amy R. Reed, Assistant Professor of Writing Arts at Rowan University
Methodology and Disciplinary Identity: Rhetorical Research on Discourses of "Wellness"
Colleen Derkatch, Assistant Professor of English at Ryerson University
History, Method, and Medical Rhetoric
Susan Wells, Professor of English at Temple University
Medical Rhetoric Research Methodologies in Global Contexts
Kirk St. Amant, Professor of English at East Carolina University
Part II: Leveraging Rhetorical and Methodological Movement
High Stakes, Stakeholders, and the Politics of Circulation: Studying the "Saving Knowledge" of Dr. Emma Walker’s Social Hygiene Lectures
Daniel Ehrenfeld, Ph.D. Candidate in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Desire Lines and the "Unbowed Head": A Framework for Making Sense of Patient Noncompliance
Catherine C. Gouge, Associate Professor of English at West Virginia University
Infrastructural Methodology: Conceptual Tools for Medical and Health Discourse
Nathan Johnson, Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Florida
Medicalized GM Mosquitoes: A Topical Method for Understanding Non-Human Biological Agents in Disease Control Programs
Molly Hartzog, Ph.D. Candidate in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media at North Carolina State University
Inventing Life: Neurorhetorics at the Corner of Play and Experimentation
David R. Gruber, Assistant Professor of English at the City University of Hong Kong
Part III: Accounting for Materiality and Lived Experience
Assemblage Mapping: A Medical Rhetoric Research Methodology
Elizabeth L. Angeli, Assistant Professor of English at Towson University
Medical Interiors: Materiality in Medical Rhetoric Research Methods
Jennifer Stockwell, PhD Candidate in English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Bringing the Body Back
Lisa Meloncon, Associate Professor of Technical Communication at the University of Cincinnati
Doctor Google and Health Literacy in Australia
Angela T Ragusa, Senior Lecturer of Sociology at Charles Sturt University (Australia); Andrea Crampton, Senior Lecturer of Microbiology at Charles Sturt University (Australia)
Rhetoric, Race, and Health Disparities Research in Communication Studies
Kelly E. Happe, Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Georgia
Part IV: Ethically Engaging Stakeholders
Rhetorical Theory to Field Method: An Evolution of Rhetorical Listening
Kristin Bivens, Assistant Professor of English at Harold Washington College
Participatory Research: Giving a Voice
Laura Pigozzi, Lecturer of Writing Studies, University of Minnesota
Engaged Rhetorical Research in Global Health: A Qualitative Approach to Studying Transcultural Rhetoric in the Dominican Republic
Rachel Bloom-Pojar, Assistant Professor of English, University of Dayton
Ethical Research in "Health 2.0": Considerations for Scholars of Medical Rhetoric
Alice Daer, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University
Dawn Opel, IHR Nexus Lab, Arizona State University
Biography
Lisa Meloncon is Associate Professor of Technical Writing at the University of South Florida. She is the founder and coordinator of the biennial Symposium for the Rhetoric of Health & Medicine. Her research in the rhetoric of health & medicine includes work with disability and embodiment, an historical study of vernacular healing, and understanding the impact of place on healthcare communication.
J. Blake Scott is Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and member of the Texts & Technology Ph.D. faculty at the University of Central Florida. His research in the rhetoric of health & medicine includes studies of HIV testing and prevention practices and of global pharmaceutical policy debates.