USC.edu

Ryan Leack

Lecturer
Ryan Leack
Email leack@usc.edu

Research & Practice Areas

Rhetoric and Composition. Quantum Mechanics. Space and Place.
Critical-Democratic Pedagogy. Continental Philosophy. Literature and Environment. Geographical Writing Studies. American Literature since 1900. Poetry and Poetics.

Biography

Dr. Ryan David Leack teaches writing and rhetoric in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Southern California, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Riverside, where he studied the productive intersections between rhetorical listening, quantum mechanics, philosophy, composition, and poetry. In particular, Ryan studies the coalescing historical and conceptual developments between rhetoric and physics, as well as the implications for the teaching of writing and rhetoric.

His academic work has appeared in the edited collection Romantic Ecocriticism: Origins and Legacies, and in the journal Composition Forum. His creative work has appeared in journals such as Chiron Review, Poetry Quarterly, Tipton Poetry Journal, Pif, Westwind, RipRap, Contemporary World Literature, Strong Verse, and Pomona Valley Review, for which he served as Editor-in-Chief for seven years.

Ryan’s instrumental music, which grounds his resonant approach to rhetoric through the ear (aurality) vs. the mouth (orality), is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and like services. His music, consisting of 55 solo instrumental tracks, has also been featured in films available at or on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Walmart, Target, and like services and retailers internationally, including Getty Music, in addition to films and TV shows on CBS, CNN, HBO, Showtime, and other channels, and has been played on radio stations in 50+ countries.

He also Co-Hosts the Dornsife Writing Program podcast Live Theory: Living Writing & Rhetoric, for which he designs and maintains the website and audio production. He leads a quiet life in Los Angeles seeking Thoreauvian tranquility and harmony with words and sound.

Education

  • Ph.D. English, University of California, Riverside, 2018
  • MA English, Cal Poly Pomona, 2012
  • BA English, Cal State Long Beach, 2008

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    My book project, Quantum Rhetoric: The Entanglement of Matter and Meaning, grounds my pedagogy, service, and research. Quantum rhetoric deepens our view into the human by expanding our embodied relations to the nonhuman—to artifacts, places, and ecologies. The effects of such relations revise notions of agency, free will, action, and citizenship, effects that bear on our capacity to deliberate—to reason together responsibly. Quantum rhetoric reaches back 2,500 years to the elder sophists, especially Protagoras, and to Democritus and other atomists, to stress the material situatedness of human communication—the domain of rhetoric. Unlike other traditions in metaphysics and analytical philosophy that see the human as largely unaffected by its body and environments, quantum rhetoric renews the view that humans are, like celestial bodies, non-rigid bodies of reference. We are moved and affected by places, bodies, and minds in motion, and by conditions in flux. Whereas Aristotle roots rhetoric in persuasion, quantum rhetoric recovers Heidegger’s 1924 definition of rhetoric as “the art of listening” to persuade us (citizens, teachers, students) to listen to the forces that animate our convictions prior to staking claims. For it is in un-grounding our convictions, I argue, that we can critically re-ground them, and thus deliberate more responsibly, until shifting conditions demand still further revisions. Quantum rhetoric bears on pressing political issues: on our capacities to listen, speak, argue, create change, and to act effectively and virtuously—the most ancient of rhetorical concerns. As such, quantum rhetoric both generates and substantiates the practices I foster in students while uniting the sciences and humanities in the process.

    Research Keywords

    quantum rhetoric, new materialism, object-oriented rhetoric, quantum mechanics, place-based autoethnography, space and place, sophistic rhetoric, critical-democratic pedagogy, continental philosophy, postcomposition

    Detailed Statement of Research Interests

    Quantum Rhetoric empirically grounds and deepens rhetoric’s atomistic roots by engaging quantum mechanics. Working with quantum physicists from Claremont Graduate University, and with advanced texts such as David Bohm’s Quantum Theory, Georg Joos’ Theoretical Physics, and Niels Bohr’s Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge, I map humanity’s fundamental atomicity, and thus its affectability—its responsiveness to the world. “Quantum rhetoric,” therefore, is the necessary entanglement of physics and rhetoric, the material and symbolic, and matter and meaning, which more fully discloses the human condition as contingent, complex, and diverse in body and mind. Whereas Aristotle roots rhetoric in persuasion, quantum rhetoric recovers Heidegger’s 1924 definition of rhetoric as “the art of listening” to persuade us (citizens, teachers, students) to listen to the forces that animate our convictions prior to staking claims. For it is in un-grounding our convictions, I argue, that we can critically re-ground them, and thus deliberate more responsibly, until shifting conditions demand still further revisions. Quantum rhetoric bears on pressing political issues: on our capacities to listen, speak, argue, create change, and to act effectively and virtuously—the most ancient of rhetorical concerns. As such, quantum rhetoric both generates and substantiates the practices I foster in students while uniting the sciences and humanities in the process.

  • Conference Presentations

    • Readerly Double Consciousness in Publishing with Pomona Valley Review , Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Fall 2023
    • Enriching Entanglements: Toward a Quantum Rhetoric , Rhetoric Society of AmericaTalk/Oral Presentation, Baltimore, MD, Spring 2022
    • Member, Rhetoric Society of America Research Group, with Nathan Stormer, distinguished scholar of rhetoric and communication , Rhetoric Society of AmericaResearch Workshop, Baltimore, MD, Spring 2022
    • Radical Rhetoric: Rooting Rhetoric in Listening , Relational Listening: Opening Your MindTalk/Oral Presentation, Arizona State University, AZ (Online due to Covid-19), Spring 2022
    • ‘Poetry Selections,’ The Illusions Beneath the Lights: Deconstructing Poetry with Pomona Valley Review (panel) , Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Las Vegas, NV, Fall 2021
    • Beyond Persuasion: Revising Commonplaces in First-Year Composition , Conference on College Composition and Communication (Panel canceled due to Covid-19)Talk/Oral Presentation, Spokane, WA, Spring 2021
    • Décadence via Nietzsche, Metaphysics for Socrates, Wave Function Collapse, Entanglement , Sixth Annual Creative Activities and Research Symposium (Online due to Covid-19)Talk/Oral Presentation, Office of Undergraduate Research, Invited, Online, Fall 2020
    • Ephemera, Linger , Prolific Press Reading Event with Glenn Lyvers (Online due to Covid-19)Talk/Oral Presentation, Prolific Press, Invited, Online, Fall 2020
    • Member, Rhetoric Society of America Research Group, with Stuart Murray, distinguished scholar of philosophy and rhetoric , Rhetoric Society of America (Canceled due to Covid-19)Research Workshop, Portland, OR, Spring 2020
    • Quantum Rhetoric: Grounding New Materialist Subjectivity , Rhetoric Society of America (Canceled due to Covid-19)Talk/Oral Presentation, Portland, OR, Spring 2020
    • To Persuade, or to Listen: Rethinking Commonplaces in First-Year Composition , Conference on College Composition and Communication (Canceled due to Covid-19)Talk/Oral Presentation, Milwaukee, WI, Spring 2020
    • Quantum Rhetoric: Grounding New Materialist Subjectivity , Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationTalk/Oral Presentation, San Diego, CA, Fall 2019
    • Between Words and Worlds: Performing Rhetoric and Composition with Portfolios , Conference on College Composition and CommunicationTalk/Oral Presentation, Pittsburgh, PA, Spring 2019
    • Images & Words (Poetry) , Mosaic Poetry Reading NightTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, University of California, Riverside, CA, Spring 2019
    • Remembering the Way, Fires Rising (Poetry) , Fifth Annual Creative Activities and Research SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, Office of Undergraduate Research, Invited, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Spring 2019
    • Totality & Temporality: Elegies through Time and Space (Poetry) , Harvest International Poetry ReadingTalk/Oral Presentation, Bronco Events and Activities Team, Invited, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Spring 2019
    • From Chaos to Cosmos, and Back: Place-Based Autoethnography in First-Year Composition , 8th Annual UC Writing Program ConferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, University of California, Merced, CA, Fall 2018
    • Reservoir of all Calls (Poetry) , In Prose or In Verse 5Talk/Oral Presentation, Sigma Tau Delta and Pomona Valley Review, Invited, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Fall 2018
    • Rewriting Words with Worlds: Rhetoric, Quantum Physics, and First-Year Writing Classrooms , Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationTalk/Oral Presentation, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, Fall 2018
    • The Phenomenology of Childhood (Poetry) , In Prose or In Verse 4: A Night with Pomona Valley ReviewTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Fall 2018
    • Sophistry since the 20th Century: Origins and Contexts of Quantum Rhetoric , 5th Annual Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Student ConferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, University of California, Merced, CA, Spring 2018
    • The Indeterminate Immediate: A Selection of Elegies (Poetry) , Graduate Student English Association’s Winter Poetry NightTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Spring 2018
    • Totality & Temporality: A Selection of Elegies (Poetry) , Third Annual Creative Activities and Research SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, Office of Undergraduate Research, Invited, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Fall 2017
    • Quantum Rhetoric: Definitions, Origins, Contexts , Summer Research SeminarsKeynote Lecture, Invited, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Spring 2017
    • An Event on the Horizon: Gertrude Stein & Quantum Physics , EcoMaterialismsTalk/Oral Presentation, EcoMaterialisms Collective, University of California, Davis, CA, Fall 2016
    • An Event on the Horizon: Gertrude Stein, Quantum Physics, and the Rise of Rhetoric as First Philosophy , Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationTalk/Oral Presentation, Pasadena, CA, Fall 2016
    • Quantum Rhetoric: The Rise of Rhetoric as First Philosophy , (dis)junctions: Crude MatterTalk/Oral Presentation, University of California, Riverside, CA, Fall 2016
    • From Chaos to Cosmos, and Back: Spatializing Writing Theories and Displacing Hegemonies , New DirectionsTalk/Oral Presentation, University of Arizona, AZ, Spring 2016
    • From Chaos to Cosmos, and Back: Spatializing Writing Theories and Displacing Hegemonies , AbstractionTalk/Oral Presentation, University of California, Irvine, CA, Spring 2016
    • An Event on the Horizon: Gertrude Stein & Quantum Physics , (dis)junctions: Strange BedfellowsTalk/Oral Presentation, University of California, Riverside, CA, Fall 2015
    • Ecocentering the Self: Thoreau, William Howitt, and the Environmental Imagination , NaturesTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, La Sierra University, Riverside, CA, Spring 2015
    • The ‘Defective and Disqualified Consumer’: Sylvia Plath, Existentialism, and the Proto-Neoliberal Regime , Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationTalk/Oral Presentation, Riverside, CA, Fall 2014
    • From Chaos to Cosmos, and Back: Spatializing Writing Theories and Displacing Hegemonies , Southern California Rhetoric & Composition SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, University of California, Irvine, CA, Fall 2013
    • Bridging Expectational Gaps: Reviving Rhetoric in High School English Composition , Southern California Rhetoric & Composition Research SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, University of California, Irvine, CA, Spring 2012
    • Promoting Conscientization: The Interrelatedness of Media, Identity, and Ideological Signifiers , Cal Poly Pomona Graduate SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Fall 2011
    • The Soul’s (Im)mortal Journey: Philosophical Intersections in Wordsworth’s ‘Ode’ and Phaedrus , Cal Poly Pomona Graduate SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Fall 2011
    • What Discourse Is and What Discourse Does: Facilitating Transitive Consciousness with Connectivity and Reflectivity , Young Rhetoricians ConferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, Monterey, CA, Fall 2011
    • Language Acquisition Between Cultures: Strategies for Improving Phonological Awareness , Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages ConventionTalk/Oral Presentation, New Orleans, LA, Spring 2011
    • A Tale of Transformation: Gender Stress and Cultural Liberation in Eat a Bowl of Tea , Cal Poly Pomona Graduate SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Fall 2010
    • The Role of L2 Proficiency in Communicative Tasks: Implications of Interactional Modification , Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages ConventionTalk/Oral Presentation, Boston, MA, Fall 2010
    • Vowel Epenthesis and Consonant Cluster Reduction: Developing English Pronunciation in a Spanish L2 Learner of English , Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages ConventionTalk/Oral Presentation, Cal State Fullerton, CA, Fall 2010
    • From Product to Process: Composition as Socio-Ideological Growth , Rowland High School AVID ConferenceTalk/Oral Presentation, Invited, Rowland Heights, CA, Spring 2010
    • Reliably Unreliable: Narration as Qualitative and Syllogistic Progression in Remains of the Day , Cal Poly Pomona Graduate SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Spring 2010
    • The ‘I’ in Team: A Path to Self Discovery and Public Discourse in the First-Year Writing Course , Cal Poly Pomona Graduate SymposiumTalk/Oral Presentation, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Spring 2010

  • Book

    • Leack, R. D. (2018). Quantum Rhetoric: The Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Dissertation). University of California. UC Open Access Publications.

    Book Chapters

    • Leack, R. D. (2016). Ecocentering the Self: William Howitt, Thoreau, and the Environmental Imagination. Romantic Ecocriticism: Origins and Legacies pp. 165-184. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

    Book Review

    • Leack, R. D. (2019). The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty, by Robert P. Crease and Alfred Scharff Goldhaber. Entropy Magazine.
    • Leack, R. D. (2019). What is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics, by Adam Becker. Entropy Magazine.
    • Leack, R. D. (2012). Cosmonauts, by Jack Foster. A Few Lines Magazine.

    Journal Article

    • Leack, R. D. (2023). Enriching Entanglements: Sophistic Rhetoric and Quantum Mechanics (Revise & Resubmit). Rhetoric Society Quarterly.
    • Leack, R. D. (2019). From Chaos to Cosmos, and Back: Place-Based Autoethnography in First-Year Composition. Composition Forum. Vol. 41.

    Magazine/Trade Publication

    • Leack, R. D.‘Rhetoric’ doesn’t need to be such an ugly word – it has a lot to teach echo-chambered America. The Conversation.
    • Leack, R. D.Steel men for stalemates: Trump, Plato and the Sophists. The Fulcrum.

    Poem

    • Leack, R. D. (2023). The Tree. (Rachel Jurasevich and Kasinda Lang, Ed.). pp. 175. Pomona, CA. Pomona Valley Review.
    • Leack, R. D. (2022). In Preparation for Platonism. (Rachel Jurasevich and Kasinda Lang, Ed.). pp. 236-7. Pomona, CA. Pomona Valley Review.
    • Leack, R. D. (2021). Décadence via Nietzsche. (Gerald Locklin, Wendy Rainey, Clint Margrave, Kareem Tayyar, Grant Hier, Rafael Zepeda, John Brantingham, Sarah Daugherty, Ed.). pp. 69. St. John, KS. Chiron Review.
    • Leack, R. D. (2020). Flying Kites in the Dark. (Joanna C. Valente, Ed.). Yes Poetry (Special Feature).
    • Leack, R. D. (2020). Linger. (Glenn Lyvers, Ed.). pp. 6. Johnstown, PA. Poetry Quarterly.
    • Leack, R. D. (2020). Ephemera. (Glenn Lyvers, Ed.). pp. 5. Johnstown, PA. Poetry Quarterly.
    • Leack, R. D. (2020). For Wang Wei, A Poem. (Barry Harris, Ed.). pp. 38-39. Indianapolis, IN. Tipton Poetry Journal.
    • Leack, R. D. (2019). Far Away. (Gerald Locklin, Wendy Rainey, Clint Margrave, Kareem Tayyar, Grant Hier, Rafael Zepeda, John Brantingham, Sarah Daugherty, Ed.). pp. 80. St. John, KS. Chiron Review.
    • Leack, R. D. (2015). How to Get Your Wife to Leave You. (Daniel Noh, Tina Lawson, Dylan Karlsson, Ed.). pp. 37. Los Angeles, CA. Westwind (UCLA).
    • Leack, R. D. (2015). For Wang Wei, A Poem; Dreaming of My Daughter, Not Yet Grown. (Ryan Leack, Chris Baarstad, Marta Albala-Pelegrin, Amanda Lynn Riggle, John Danho, Ed.). pp. 131-135. Pomona, CA. Pomona Valley Review.
    • Leack, R. D. (2014). Where My Grandmother Forgets My Name; A Dreamer of Dwellings in a House of Memory. (Ryan Leack and Chris Baarstad, Ed.). pp. 110-114. Pomona, CA. Pomona Valley Review.
    • Leack, R. D. (2012). When You Left Dad; A Midwinter Night’s Sleep. (Rebecca Colbert, Susan Summers, Justin Burnside, Sandra Hooven, Paul Sacksteder, Molly O’Donnell, Ed.). pp. 23-25. Las Vegas, NV. Word River (UNLV).
    • Leack, R. D. (2012). Replanting Perfection; Straw Hat Man; Sugar Bear; Finite Reflections; That Last Thought. (Steve Glines, Kate Hanson Foster, Carol Smallwood, Teisha Twomey, Tim Gager, Doug Holder, Ed.). pp. 1-8. Littleton, MA. Wilderness House Literary Review.
    • Leack, R. D. (2012). Magic Mirror. (Orson Scott Card, Ed.). Strong Verse. Hatrack River Enterprises.
    • Leack, R. D. (2011). Where God Is; No Say I Love You. (Jack Foster, Ed.). pp. 16-17; 45. Pomona, CA. A Few Lines Magazine.
    • Leack, R. D. (2011). When Mom Left; Fields of Time. (Ryan Leack, Chris Baarstad, Raul Madrid, Patricia do Carmo, Ed.). pp. 77-80. Pomona, CA. Pomona Valley Review.
    • Leack, R. D. (2011). Escape to Recollection. (Alexandra Panic, Mariah Beckman, Tristan Beach, Danielle Hayden, Derek Alger, Ed.). Poetry, Interviews, Fiction (Pif).
    • Leack, R. D. (2011). The Bus Stop Girl; The Conductor. Contemporary World Literature.

    Poetry Collection

    • Leack, R. D.Critiques Of (In Progress).
    • Leack, R. D. (2020). On the Verge of Vanishing (Under Review). Tallahassee, FL. Anhinga Press.
    • Leack, R. D. (2020). Totality & Temporality: Elegies through Time and Space (Under Review). North Adams, MA. Tupelo Press.
    • Album, Two Dimensional Paradise (Solo Instrumental Album), Available On: Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and like services, 2008-2009
    • Film Score, Mother’s Milk: Composed the score for a not-for-profit short film to promote research in causes and prevention of miscarriages, as well as generate awareness and create women support groups. The film was distributed to hospitals in California and Hawaii, including Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, 2008-2009
    • Musical Composition, Cottage Housing: Composed music for the not-for-profit institute in Sacramento, “Cottage Housing,” which builds homes for the homeless. The music supported a fundraising campaign for further construction projects, 2009-2010
    • Musical Composition, I Am a Person: Composed the score for a not-for-profit PSA commercial promoting respect for disabled persons, 2009-2010
    • Album, Sola Fide (Solo Instrumental Album), Available On: Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and like services, 2010-2011
    • Film Score, Absentia (Solo Instrumental Film Score), Available On: Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and like services. Film featured on Showtime, HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and like services internationally. Film awards include “Best Narrative Feature,” “Best Feature Film,” and “Best American Independent Feature” in multiple film festivals, 2010-2011
    • Film Score, Blackwood Hill (Solo Instrumental Film Score Material), Available On: Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and like services. Tracks used in TV shows on CBS, CNN, NBA TV, HBO Max, Showtime, Movie Channel, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, and in TV shows, commercials, and radio in 50+ countries, 2011-2012
    • Film Score, Nature Kids (Solo Instrumental Film Score), Available On: Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and like services. Tracks used in TV shows on CBS, CNN, NBA TV, HBO Max, Showtime, Movie Channel, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, and in TV shows, commercials, and radio in 50+ countries, 2012-2013
    • Film Score, Ana Luna & the Deep (Solo Instrumental Film Score Material), Available On: Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and like services. Tracks used in TV shows on CBS, CNN, NBA TV, HBO Max, Showtime, Movie Channel, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, and in TV shows, commercials, and radio in 50+ countries, 2013-2014
    • Podcast, Live Theory: Living Writing & Rhetoric (USC): Co-Host podcast created and managed by the Professional Development Committee of the Dornsife Writing Program. Design and maintain website (livetheory.org), as well as production of audio, 2020
    • Media Project, Medicinal Music Makers (USC): Contribute songs to a recognized student organization (RSO) that works with the Keck Hospital staff of the Patient Experience department, as well as the Music as Medicine department, to distribute music videos to patients, their families, caregivers, and staff at USC hospitals to help shape a positive environment, 2021-2022
    • Media Project, 3rd Annual The Big Rhetorical Podcast Carnival (Texas A&M): Contributed “Episode 8: Jonathan Alexander: Writing and Desire” of our Writing Program podcast “Live Theory: Living Writing & Rhetoric” to a popular podcast by Dr. Charles Wood at Texas A&M, which produces and gathers podcasts in rhetoric and writing,
    • Podcast, 4th Annual The Big Rhetorical Podcast Carnival. Contributed “Episode 10: Chatting about ChatGPT with USC” of our Writing Program podcast Live Theory: Living Writing & Rhetoric to a popular podcast by Dr. Charles Wood at Texas A&M, which produces and gathers podcasts in rhetoric and writing,
    • Dornsife Development Fund Award (USC), 2020-2023
    • Professional Development Fund Award (UC Riverside), Fall 2018
    • Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship (UC Riverside), 2013-2014
    • Ted Pugh Poetry Prize (Cal Poly Pomona), Fall 2011
    • President’s Council Scholarship (Cal Poly Pomona), 2010-2011

  • Committees

    • Professional Development Committee, Dornsife Writing Program, USC, 2019-CONT
    • Fulbright U.S. Student Program Campus Evaluation Committee for the English Teaching Assistantship, Office of Academic Programs, USC, 2023-2024
    • Fulbright U.S. Student Program Campus Evaluation Committee for the English Teaching Assistantship, Office of Academic Programs, USC, 2022-2023
    • Lower Division Curriculum Committee, Dornsife Writing Program, USC, 2021-2022
    • Professional Workshops Committee, Dornsife Writing Program, USC, 2021-2022
    • RTPC/PT Caucus, Dornsife Faculty Council, Writing Program, USC, 2020-2021
    • Reading Group Sub-Committee, Professional Development Committee, Dornsife Writing Program, USC, 2018-2020

    Media, Alumni, and Community Relations

    • “Live Theory.” Co-Host Dornsife Writing Program podcast. Design, maintain site and audio (USC),
    • “Editor’s Pick.” USC News selected my article on rhetoric and echo chambers at The Conversation as an Editor’s Pick for the site’s front page (USC), Fall Spri
    • “Writing Remix Podcast.” Interviewed by Drs. Daniel Dissinger and Katherine Robison for the Writing Remix Podcast Episode 25 (Dornsife Writing Program, USC),
    • “Featuring Local and International Art at the Pomona Valley Review.” Interviewed by The Poly Post to discuss Pomona Valley Review (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • “Philosophy as a Way of Life.” Interviewed by “Filling the Blankhs,” a student community led by philosophy undergraduate Nikhil Gowda (UC Riverside),
    • “Literary Journal Resurrected.” Interviewed by The Poly Post to discuss the reemergence of Pomona Valley Review (Cal Poly Pomona), Spring Fall

    Other Service to the University

    • Thematic Coordinator for Writing 150: Health and Healing (with Course Releases for Fall 2023-2024, USC), 2023-2024
    • Instructor, Summer Bridge Program, “GESM 120: Quantum Rhetoric: An Inquiry into Matter and Meaning,” Office of Undergraduate Education (USC),
    • Workshop Leader, Freshman Seminar: “(W)rites of Passage,” a Joint Educational Project (JEP) and Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) (USC),
    • Instructor, Grading Contract Pilot Study for Writing 340 (USC), 2021-2022
    • Judge, Undergraduate Writers’ Conference, Proposal Category: “Professional/Moral Reasoning” (USC),
    • Moderator, Undergraduate Writers’ Conference, Proposal Category: “Analytical, Research, and Professional/Moral Reasoning” (USC),
    • Instructor, Grading Contract Pilot Study for Writing 150 (USC), 2020-2021
    • Reader, Analytical Writing Placement Exam (UC Berkeley, UCLA),
    • Guest Speaker, “Publishing Workshop 2018,” by the Graduate Student English Association, with Leah Pennywark of Stanford University Press, and Michelle Chihara of Los Angeles Review of Books (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Guest Speaker, “Workshop on Writing for the Web and Journal Publishing,” with Pomona Valley Review, Harvest International, and The Poly Post (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Guest Speaker, “Applying to Ph.D. Programs,” by Dr. Dewey Hall (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Guest Speaker, “Publishers Q&A with Pomona Valley Review,” Mt. San Antonio College’s 10th Annual Writer’s Weekend (Mt. San Antonio College),
    • Organizer, Rhetoric and Composition Graduate Collective (UC Irvine),
    • Guest Speaker, “Applying to Graduate Programs: Strategies for the Obscure,” Summer Research Seminars (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Guest Speaker, “Life After Graduation: Stories from Recent EFL Alums,” by Drs. Dewey Hall and Kent Dickson (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Guest Speaker, “Applying to Ph.D. Programs,” by Dr. Dewey Hall (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Guest Speaker, English Graduate Orientation (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Guest Speaker, “Applying to Ph.D. Programs,” by Drs. Aaron DeRosa and Lise-He´le`ne Smith (Cal Poly Pomona), Fall Fall
    • Organizer, Cal Poly Pomona Graduate Symposium (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Module Designer, Expository Reading & Writing Course (Cal Poly Pomona), 2011-2012
    • Administrator, English Placement Test (Cal Poly Pomona),
    • Program Designer, South Basin Writing Project (CSULB),

  • Conferences Organized

    • Chair, “Rhetorical Theory” (Panel), Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Portland, OR, Fall 2023
    • Chair, “Rhetorical Theory” (Panel), Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, Fall 2022
    • Workshop Leader, “Publishers Workshop with the Editors of Pomona Valley Review” (Panel), May Culturama, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA, Fall 2022
    • Chair, “Multimedia Composition as a Practice of Relational Listening in Linguistically Diverse Writing Classrooms” (Panel), Relational Listening, Arizona State University, AZ (Online due to Covid-19), Spring 2022
    • Chair, “Beyond Persuasion: Rhetoric, Listening, Response-ability” (Panel), Rhetoric Society of America, Baltimore, MD, Spring 2022
    • Chair, “Rhetorical Theory” (Panel), Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Las Vegas, NV, Fall 2021
    • Chair, “Teaching Writing toward Democracy” (Panel), Conference on College Composition and Communication (Panel canceled due to Covid-19), Spokane, WA, Spring 2021
    • Chair, “Listening to Our Students: Rhetorical Listening and Response-ability in Writing Classes” (Panel), Rhetoric Society of America (Canceled due to Covid), Portland, OR, Spring 2020
    • Chair, “(Re)Configuring First-Year Composition Courses as Common Places” (Panel), Conference on College Composition and Communication (Canceled due to Covid), Milwaukee, WI, Spring 2020
    • Chair, “Rhetorical Theory” (Panel), Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, San Diego, CA, Fall 2019
    • Organizer, “Publishing Political Irony: Literary Arts with Pomona Valley Review” (Creative Writing Session), Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, San Diego, CA, Fall 2019
    • Chair, “Military and State Violences” (Panel), (dis)junctions: Moving Voices, University of California, Riverside, CA, Spring 2019
    • Chair, “Composition and Rhetoric II” (Panel), Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, Fall 2018
    • Co-Host, “In Prose or In Verse 4: A Night with Pomona Valley Review” (Campus Event), Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Spring 2018
    • Host, “Poetry Reading, Open Mic, and Art Walk with Pomona Valley Review and Featured Poets” (Campus Event), Lingua Franca Speaker Series, Cal Poly Pomona, CA, Fall 2017
    • Chair, “Imagining Alternatives: Ecology, Kinship, and Community” (Panel), (dis)junctions: Trauma and Mourning in a Time of Insecurity, University of California, Riverside, CA, Spring 2017
    • Chair, “Poetry in (Digital) Process: A Poetry Reading and Publishing Discussion with Pomona Valley Review” (Panel), PAMLA, Pasadena, CA, Fall 2016
    • Chair, “Ideology and the Body” (Panel), (dis)junctions: Crude Matter, University of California, Riverside, CA, Spring 2016
    • Chair, “I’m Naked Around You: Epistemology and the Technology of the Self” (Panel), (dis)junctions: Strange Bedfellows, University of California, Riverside, CA, Spring 2015

    Editorships and Editorial Boards

    • Adviser, Pomona Valley Review”, 2018 –
    • Editor-in-Chief, Pomona Valley Review”, 2010 – 2017

    Professional Memberships

    • Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), 2017 –
    • Rhetoric Society of America (RSA), 2017 –
    • Modern Language Association (MLA), 2016 –
    • Association for the Study of Literature & Environment (ASLE), 2015 –
    • Rhetoric Reading Group (UC Irvine), 2015 –
    • Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association (PAMLA), 2013 –
    • Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), 2009 – 2012

    Reviewer for Publications

    • Routledge, Reviewer, Book Proposal Category: “Communication”, Spring 2023
    • Pomona Valley Review, Editor-in-Chief, 2010 – 2017

    Other Service to the Profession

    • Reviewer, Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Proposal Categories: “Rhetorical Theory,” “Rhetorical Criticism,” “Public Rhetoric,” Denver, CO., 2023-2024
    • Reviewer, Proposal and Panel Categories: “Rhetorical Theory,” “Rhetorical Pedagogy,” “Material/Bodily Rhetorics,” Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Baltimore, MD., 2021-2022