I am currently a temporary assistant professor of Communication Studies at Kutztown University.
In a general sense, my work focuses on the rhetoric of mental health and emotion.
In my dissertation I conduct a rhetorical analyses of autobiographical accounts of living with mood disorders, depression and bi-polar disorder in particular.
I examine these rhetorical acts as forms of public argumentation and civic communication through a hermeneutic and existential phenomenological approach of deep reading.
My purpose is to theorize how communication occurs in the face of a suffering that often casts its agents as unreliable narrators, with the practical goal of developing an ethics of encountering unjustly marginalized voices.
My research rethinks rhetorical theory through mood disorders to better understand the way audiences encounter the materiality of affect, the way the human sensorium shapes rhetorical invention, and ultimately how the material ambience of personal sentiment, public discourses on mental illness, and psychiatric discourses enable or constrain ethical practices of listening and attunement.
As a contribution to how rhetorical theory and praxis might be reimagined (and in many cases recover its classical footings) to meet 21st century exigencies, such as increased technologizing of human connection and being in the world, my research allies with universities steeped in the humanistic liberal arts and a deep respect for the dignity of the human person in society.
Recent publications include a book chapter on the dialogical nature of audience in suicide notes in the edited collection, Suicide as Dramatic Performance (2015), edited by David Lester and Steven Stack, as well as an article on happiness in the ETC: A Review of General Semantics (2015).
Currently submitted and under review for a special issue on Philosophy of Communication & Literature in the Review of Communication is a paper examining the tacit philosophies of communication in William Styron’s mood memoir, Darkness Visible. A version of this paper was accepted for presentation at the National Communication Association Conference (2016).
My teaching specializations are rhetorical theory and criticism, argumentation, and public speaking, with additional expertise in interpersonal communication and communication theory.
The subject of holistic attunement to one’s being in the world figures prominently in my research, and partners well with universities guided by missions that include pursuits of life-long learning, self-knowledge or cultural awareness.
As such, my teaching focuses on cultivating classical liberal communicative capacities and dispositions for critical and reflective thinking, ethical action, and life-long learning.
For instance, in public speaking courses, I assign a “Topic Selection Weekend Retreat.” Students record notable emotional reactions over the course of a weekend to help students understand how emotions can be signposts of topics, events, and issues which provoke their inner interests in real-time.
The practical goal is to helping them find intrinsically rewarding speech topics, but the more liberal goal is to increasing their awareness of their implicit assent to cultural attitudes, values, and beliefs.
I guess you can say my teaching is “subversive” in that way.
My success in this pedagogical approach of self-reflective attunement has led to a few cool awards and recognition.
*Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award (awarded by the University of Illinois Student Senate)
*Instructor of the Summer (awarded by Upwards Bound)
*Four-year rank as “Excellent & Outstanding Teacher” (by the Daily Illini)
*Teacher of Excellence (awarded by University of Illinois Women’s Basketball).
*An average of student evaluation scores of 96% at Kutztown University (considered “Good to Excellent”)
*4.7 (out of 5) for the measure “overall teaching effectiveness” at the University of Illinois.
*Awarded the Outstanding Mentor award by communication majors
Colleges with a humanistic, liberal arts tradition appeal to me as one who is called to teach and serve underrepresented populations. This vocation was first heard as I struggled to make sense of the culture of higher education as a first generation, bi-racial college student.
Being Mexican and Black in the Midwest, was challenging academically, personally, and spiritually. After experiencing the transformative power of the humanities while studying liberal studies and communication theory at a small liberal arts college, I felt compelled to teach so that I might also inspire transformative learning for students.
My success in teaching communication from a humanistic perspective to a diverse array of students has only deepened my belief in the transformative power of the humanities and the resoluteness of my vocation.
I can envision working with local communities on public humanities upper-level undergraduate courses like “Rhetorical Classics and Community Work,” inspired by the Clemente Course in the Humanities wherein students can facilitate courses in classical rhetorical readings in communities that might not otherwise have the opportunity for higher education. Ultimately, I am seeking to bring my moody perspective on rhetorical processes to the classroom, scholarly conversations with faculty with differing interests than my own, and vibrant public works.
