My Current Research Interests
LGBTQ+ Livability
My scholarship explores issues of trans and queer resistance, representation, and livability in order to determine how rhetorical critics can employ understandings of rhetoric as persuasive, transformational, and constitutive to promote social action and awareness through community-involved practice and engagement.
Drag Protest Resistance
· I examine three instances of drag protest, (1) a group of 65 protestors’ collective standing disruption of a pride show in Castle Rock, Colorado, (2) a solo scripture-wielding protestor against a James Madison University campus drag show, and (3) a failed group action to stop a Florida drag brunch lead by two street preachers. These acts of protest present implications for the disruption of queer space by cishetero bodies, particularly bodies with the intent to make a public statement against drag as a form of expression.
Terri Joe's Activism
Combining notions of online activism and Black character portrayal, user Psyiconic presents a dynamic opportunity for critical inquiry. Dressing up as their character Terri Joe, Psyiconic can be found on weeknights going live for their 3 million followers, blaming "coloreds" and "homosexuals" for the world's ills. I argue that Terri Joe successfully uses ironic identity-nabbing to call out constructs of whiteness, cisheteronormativity, and Christian supremacy within her rhetorical TikTok fantasy.
