COVID-19 & Rhetoric
Project Faculty: Dr. Julie Gerdes
My projects focus on rhetoric in public health emergencies of international concern. Recent and current projects that the CRS has supported include a COVID-19 oral history project in partnership with a local nonprofit that serve Spanish-speaking communities and work on online vaccine messaging through Virginia Tech’s public health programs and in partnership with Virginia Cooperative Extension and VSU.
Uncovering the Commitment to Diversity
Project Faculty: Dr. Sherri Craig
Through an investigation and categorization of “commitments” to diversity, Dr. Craig’s project responds to the US anti-police protests in 2020 and the resulting actions (and statements) by institutions and English departments. Dr. Craig, with assistance from graduate student researchers, uses a lens of invitational rhetoric and institutional critique to perform critical content analysis to position universities and English departments as reflective of and responsible to the societies in which they exist.