DC/Adapters (2013 - )

DC/Adapters (dcadapters.org) is a photographic archive of creative remixes of the flag of the District of Columbia. A study of how people all across the city re-purpose one of its most powerful and recognizable symbols, this project documents and amplifies a vibrant, local network of rhetorical activity.

My writing on DC/Adapters appears in technoculture (2014), Washington History Magazine (2018), and The Routledge Companion to Public Humanities Scholarship (2024).

DC/Adapters has been covered by the Washington Post and is included in the Humanities for All and Rhetorics for All collections.

Writing Beyond the University (2019 - 2024)

Originally funded by the Center for Engaged Learning (Elon University), our team of 5 researchers (Dana Driscoll, Andrea Efthymiou, Heather Lindenman, Jen Reid, and me) set out to study writing outside of traditional academic spaces. We focused on self-sponsored writing (writing outside of the context of work and school obligations) by asking what functions it serves for those who engage in it. With surveys of over 700 participants and nearly 30 interviews, we were able to inventory a range of self-sponsored writing at a larger scale than any study that preceded ours.

Our findings were published in Written Communication (2024)

Public Humanities and the Rhetoric Society of America (2019 - )

Since 2020, I’ve served on the public humanities committee of the Rhetoric Society of America, and in 2024 I began a term as committee chair. Building on the prior leadership of Dave Tell (Kansas U.), we’ll continue to expand Rhetorics for All and develop additional public humanities programming for the society.