Presentations

selected conference papers

“Hoping against Sentiment: James Baldwin, Edward Said, and Rhetorical Impiety.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Nov. 2025, Milwaukee, WI. Paper proposal under review.

“The Human Depths: James Baldwin’s Counterimage of Burkean Logology.” International Society for the History of Rhetoric, July 2025, Copenhagen, Denmark. Proposal accepted.

“Ethical Orientation: Joseph Priestley’s Topics in the Shadow of Dogmatism.” International Society for the History of Rhetoric, July 2024, Vancouver, BC.

“God-Terms and Worldly Justice: Edward Said, Kenneth Burke, and the Problem of Heteronomy.” Rhetoric Society of America, May 2024, Denver, CO.

“Toward Logological Skepticism: Or, Bowing at the Altar of Metonymy.” American Society for the History of Rhetoric Symposium, May 2024, Denver, CO.

“Dignitas, Abundance, and the Ethos of the Student Writer.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Apr. 2024, Spokane, WA.

“The Epideictic Gravity of the Middle Stases: Metonymy, Essence, and COVID-19.” Rhetoric Society of America National Conference, May 2022, Baltimore, MD.

“Showing as Troping as Moving amid COVID-19: An Epideictic Turn.” American Society for the History of Rhetoric Symposium, May 2022, Baltimore, MD.

“‘Redemption Follows Allocution’: Dan Harmon and the #MeToo Apology.” Rhetoric Society of America, May 2020. Paper proposal accepted; undelivered due to conference cancellation.

“Fragmenting Rhetorical Analysis: Commonplace as Text.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Mar. 2020. Paper proposal accepted; undelivered due to conference cancellation.

“Outperforming Irony in the Trump Era.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Mar. 2019, Pittsburgh, PA.

“Chronotopic Immersion in Alien and Metroid: Rhetorics of Space (and Time).” Southwest Popular/ American Culture Association, Feb. 2019, Albuquerque, NM.

“Rhetorical Topoi and the Other Toulmin Model: Time, Space, Evolution.” Rhetoric Society of America, June 2018, Minneapolis, MN.

“Resuscitating Bakhtin in the Age of Trump: Dialogics as Counter-Rhetoric.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Mar. 2018. Paper proposal accepted; undelivered due to illness.

“Literacy and Rhetoric as Complementary Keywords.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Mar. 2017, Portland, OR.

“Topical and Tropological Dimensions of Twitter Hashtags.” Thomas R. Watson Conference, Oct. 2016, Louisville, KY.

“Epideixis and/as Cultural Evolution.” Rhetoric Society of America, Atlanta, GA, May 2016.

“Vico’s Axioms as Topoi of Responsivity.” Thomas R. Watson Conference, Louisville, KY, Oct. 2014.

“Utopian Appeals and Rhetorical Borders: AIDS and the Utopoi of American Nationalism.” Rhetoric Society of America, San Antonio, TX, May 2014.

“Picking Up the Fragments of the 2012 Election: What Do Memes Mean for Rhetoric?” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Indianapolis, IN, Mar. 2014.

“AIDS, Immigration, and the Topoi of Post-Crisis American Nationalism.” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Stanford, CA, Sept. 2013.

“Mulholland Dr. and the Chronotopic Unconscious.” Invited talk sponsored by Women’s and Gender Studies Dept., The University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, Mar. 2013.

“Anti-Ethnography and the Rhetoric of Omission: Zooming Out from the Ruins of Detroit.” Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, Louisville, KY, Feb. 2013.

“Kurt Vonnegut as Rhetorical Theorist.” Popular / American Culture Association in the South Conference, Nashville, TN, Sept. 2012.

“Avatar and the Topos of Disability.” Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association National Conference, Boston, MA, Apr. 2012.

“Assessing Digital Assessment: How to Confront the Current-Traditional Assumptions of E-Portfolio Systems.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, MO, Mar. 2012.

“What Is Cinematic Ethos? Three Theoretical Inquiries into the Rhetoric of Film.” Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, Louisville, KY, Feb. 2012.

“The Audio-Visual Palimpsest: Rhetoric, Poetics, and Heteroglossia in Mystery Science Theater 3000.” Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association, San Antonio, TX, Apr. 2011.

Kevin Rutherford and Ben Wetherbee. “Digital Approaches for Integrating Literature and Composition.” Digital poster presentation, Conference on College Composition and Communication, Atlanta, GA, Apr. 2011.

“Replicant Rhetoric: Gender, Humanity, and Ideology in Blade Runner.” Tenth Annual Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality Symposium, Oxford, OH, Feb. 2011.

“Film and the Dialogic Student: Using Movies in the Composition Classroom.” North Carolina Symposium on Teaching Writing, Raleigh, NC, Feb. 2011.

local scholarly presentations

“Alien, Metroid, and the Experience of Space.” Festival of Arts and Ideas, The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Feb. 2019, Chickasha, OK.

“Mulholland Dr. and the Chronotopic Unconscious.” Sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Dept., The University of Louisville, Mar. 2013, Louisville, KY.