Title: Assistant Professor (Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies)
University: University of Kentucky
Email: K.Rogers-Carpenter@uky.edu
Description of your work
As a faculty member in the University of Kentucky’s Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies department, I teach courses about epidemics and language, women’s health, and writing public science. I have presented conference papers about cultural responses to Ebola, cholera, and tuberculosis. I also serve on the editorial board for the Journal of the Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science and I am an affiliate faculty member with our Health, Societies, and Populations department.
My current project examines how beliefs and assumptions about disease affect treatment choices and how these beliefs change over time. I start by examining two tuberculosis cases—one from 1863 and another from 2007. I am currently exploring parallels between these cases and modern assumptions about vaccines, supplements, and fad diets.