Distributed Accountability: Technical Communication and the Non-Human Environment
ATTW 2019

This presentation addresses technical communication’s accountability to and for a non-human stakeholder: the environment. Material analyses of the environment are well-established in rhetoric of science, indigenous studies, and science and technology studies (see e.g., Druschke & McGreavy, 2016; Kimmerer, 2013; Latour 2014); extending these analyses to TC provides a productive approach to understanding the complexity of accountability across TC’s many iterations. This presentation focuses on the critical gap between conceptions of “accountability for” and “accountability to,” which offer different models for understanding our relationships as scholars  (and more broadly, as humans) with the environment.

Service Learning as a Model for Legitimizing Rhetorical Evidence in Transdisciplinary Partnerships
ARSTM@NCA 2018

Using a specific example course in which I partnered with the Kentucky Division for Air Quality, I argue that service learning offers RSTM an accessible model for developing transdisciplinary relationships; these relationships can provide structured ways for partners to engage with us and co-develop evidentiary approaches that are relevant to our field but also useful for theirs. The familiarity of service learning pedagogy may help RSTM scholars to make inroads as they work to legitimize rhetorical methods and evidence for far-flung fields.

Civility and Climate Change: How (Not) to Talk about Scientific Controversy
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
University Forum Lecture Series

Climate change is one of the most controversial scientific topics in politics and the public sphere. Despite strong scientific evidence, people still wonder if the anthropogenic climate change is real. Just as contentious are debates about what mitigation and adaptation strategies are feasible and desirable, given their political and economic ramifications. This lecture surveys some of the reasons that climate change has become so controversial and provides productive ways of talking about climate change that draw from rhetorical and ethical theory.


lauren.cagle@uky.edu | 859.257.1115