Title: Associate Professor of English
University: University of Alabama at Birmingham
Email: cynryan@uab.edu
Description of your work
I identify primarily as a scholar in RHM who works at the intersection of academic and public discourse. As a breast cancer survivor twice diagnosed (in 1993 and 2004), I feel strongly that those of us who examine the many rhetorics that permeate health and medicine contexts have an obligation to engage with public and institutional stakeholders who are situated in and affected by complex rhetorical events. Thus, I am invested in a variety of communication contexts, composing research-based op-eds and essays for prominent media publications (e.g., LA Times, USA Today, Huffington Post, Cancer Today); collaborating with photographers (e.g., David Jay, Sylvia Plachy) to produce photojournalism projects and multimedia exhibits that reach varied audiences; and working with local, vulnerable populations (e.g., cancer survivors in Birmingham, AL who are living on the streets) through the development of health education programs that also seek to connect these populations with health care resources in the area.
The project I’ve brought to the 2019 RHM Symposium focuses on messaging by the Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness regarding “energy balance,” the notion that calories in and calories out are the sole determinants of health—regardless of the nutritional value of the items consumed. I explore the trajectory of the energy balance campaign and the multivocal conversation that has developed around it, the ideological framework (e.g., neoliberalism) that contributes to the success of the campaign (as well as the criticisms waged against it), and the value of examining this and similar campaigns from a continuum of perspectives.