Engaging Public Rhetorics and Communities with New Faculty: Part 1

By Rachel Bloom-Pojar
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Fall 2019 marks the official launch of our program in Public Rhetorics and Community Engagement at UWM. My colleagues and I are also excited to welcome two new faculty members to our program: Dr. Derek Handley and Dr. Maria Novotny. To help everyone get to know them better, I asked Derek and Maria a series of questions about their experience and vision for the new program. In this post, we’ll learn a bit about Derek and Maria’s background with research and part 2 will focus on their teaching and goals for the future of the program. ​

Derek G. Handley has a PhD in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University and is a Navy veteran. His book project “The Places We Knew So Well Are No More:” A Rhetorical History of Urban Renewal and the Black Freedom Movement looks at the rhetorical strategies and tactics used by African-American communities in Milwaukee, WI, Pittsburgh, PA, and St. Paul, MN as they resisted urban renewal. Before coming to UWM, Derek was a Predoctoral Mellon Fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University, and he has taught at Lehigh University, the United States Naval Academy, and the Community College of Allegheny County. Derek has also held non-academic jobs in higher education, the US Navy, and the USDA Forest Service. His research interests/areas of specialization include African American Rhetoric, Rhetorical History, and Rhetorics of Place. He has a Chamberlain Project Fellowship at Amherst College this year, and will begin teaching at UWM in Fall 2020. 

Maria Novotny holds a PhD in Rhetoric & Writing from Michigan State University. Before coming to UWM, she was an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh where she successfully created a professional writing minor and worked with an interdisciplinary team on creating a Health Humanities minor. At UWO, she taught classes on digital rhetorics, grant writing, and visual rhetoric. Much of her research explores the multimodal narratives and technological tools used by the infertility and reproductive loss community to navigate barriers to reproductive healthcare. She is also the co-founder and co-director of The ART of Infertility, which is an organization that works with reproductive loss patients to portray their experiences in public art exhibits. She situates her work around cultural rhetorics, with a focus on feminist and embodied perspectives, digital rhetorics, and technical communication. Maria lives in Washington Heights with her husband, two dogs, and adopted daughter, Nina.

What is your experience with community-engaged research?
Maria: I draw on my work with the ART of Infertility to inform my community-engaged scholarship. As a resource organization, I host multimodal art workshops for reproductive loss patients to depict their experiences with grief and the reproductive healthcare industry. Once patient pieces are created, I invite patient-participants to narrate their infertility experiences through their artwork. Today, the organization has over 200 pieces of narrative art, of which, I incorporate into art exhibitions around the U.S. I understand these exhibits as evidence of how art rhetorically translates technical, scientific, and medical experiences into accessible experiences for non-experts to grasp and ignite community-engaged action. My purpose is to act as an ally to remove the embedded cultural stigma of receiving an infertility diagnosis and create resources that educate healthcare providers, and the public at-large, on the sociocultural challenges faced by the reproductive loss community.
 
Derek: My research focuses on African American community rhetorical histories which means I have to do research in the archives and in the local neighborhoods. I conduct interviews with community members, walk the locations where historical events took place, and attend community events. I also like to take students on walking tours of these historic neighborhoods. 

What are you currently working on?
Derek:  I am currently working on my book project, “The Places We Knew So Well Are No More:” A Rhetorical History of Urban Renewal and the Black Freedom Movement.  In particular, I’m focusing on the Milwaukee section of the book where rhetorical education played a significant role in helping residents understand the complexities of urban renewal. In addition, I’m working on a conference paper (National Communications Association) about St. Paul, Minnesota, which will also be featured in my book. My paper explores how race is implicated in the contested spaces and places of urban renewal policies. But more importantly, it will examine the rhetorical actions taken by residents in St. Paul in an effort to save their community from the wrecking balls of eminent domain during the 1950s and 60s. 

Maria: I’m currently co-editing special issues for The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics on “Curation: A Multimodal Practice for Socially-Engaged Action”, Computers and Composition on “Rhetorics of Data: Collection, Consent, & Critical Digital Literacies”, and Reflections on “Rhetorics of Reproductive Justice in Public and Civic Contexts”. While on the surface those themes may appear distinct, the calls emphasize scholarly contributions that consider how curation may act as a response for social action.

Related, I’m working on a co-authored book project with Dr. John Gagnon (University of Hawaii-Manoa). We published “Research as Care: A Shared Ownership Approach to Rhetorical Research in Trauma Communities,” which offers a cultural rhetorical framework for collaborating with trauma participants for rhetorical research. Our book project tentatively titled, Care as a Practice: Reorienting Research in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, offers a cultural rhetorics infused methodological framework to inform the design and ethical enactment of community-engaged research projects. Our manuscript expands on and explains the idea of care as a research practice, demonstrates the efficacy of a care-centered research paradigm, and delivers concrete models for how to enact care methodologically.

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Now that you've gotten to know a bit more about Derek and Maria, check out part 2 to read about their teaching experience and vision for UWM’s Public Rhetorics and Community Engagement program.