Title: Professor and Chair of the Graduate Program, College of Communication and Design
University: Lynn University
Email: vfabj@lynn.edu
Description of your work
I have been doing research on rhetoric and health for over two decades, beginning with work on the AIDS activist movement and the spheres of argument. Most of that work, co-authored with Matt Sobnosky, looked at rhetorical strategies used by activists to influence medical research in the technical sphere, translate medical information for patients drawing in the personal sphere, and ultimately bring attention to the AIDS pandemic by rejuvenating the public sphere. I continued to analyze the intersection of medical issues and the spheres of arguments with work on safer sex messages targeted toward lesbians, work on intersex activists, and an analysis of arguments surrounding orphan diseases. My latest project is an analysis of the rhetoric surrounding forced sterilizations in Peru during the Fujimori regime (1995-2000) from a perspective of the epistemology of ignorance.