I teach in the English Department at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. My area of focus is Writing Studies, which examines the production and effects of inscriptive technologies in all their various forms — from pen and paper to computer. Humans have at least 8,000 years of history using writing technologies to better commerce, extend empires, refine thoughts and feelings, and influence our projects of world-making and world-destroying. In the way biology studies life, philosophy studies thought, and psychology the mind, Writing Studies scholars study what is perhaps the most significant technology humans have ever devised.

I teach courses on literacy and writing, many in the Professional Writing Program here in the department. I have taught classes on Native American rhetorics, video game literacy, digital humanities, classical rhetoric, teacher education, and science communication & advocacy. Many of my courses feature a strong engagement component where students write for a real audience and have a real benefit to their community. I served as the departmental Writing Program Administrator until 2015.

My research has appeared in Collge Composition and Communication, Rhetoric Review, Kairos, PRE/Text, and other journals as well as edited collections such as Rhetorics, Literacies, and Narratives of Sustainability and Florida. My current projects focus on indigenous philosophies of relations that help re-examine rhetorical theories beyond construction, constructivist, and other metaphors of building. One of these is a co-edited collection of rhetorical work at the intersection of decolonization and new materialisms.

While much of my research has revolved around Oceti Sankowin people and their connection to land and story, the proximity of the Meskwaki Nation and its historic value for Iowa has more recently expanded my horizons.