Jesse Starkey

University: Texas Tech University, College of Media and Communication

Description of Work:

I entered into the world of rhetoric of health and medicine almost by accident—I began with an interest in the ways the stigma surrounding mental illness is perpetuated in society, and have since been enthralled with the tools offered by rhetorical criticism to peel back the discourse surrounding specific topics. The projects I am currently engaged in are explorations of rhetorical ecologies in two areas: sexual assault and mental illness. The common thread is that both topics are stigma-bearing marks, and despite recent social advances in the discourse in both areas, the discourse surrounding these topics is fraught with misconceptions, stereotyping, and politicized arguments.

I am especially interested in the complexities and contextual nature of different types of texts and how they interact with both their intended publics and peripheral readers. Circulation and re-circulation of texts in intersecting publics are also of concern in my research, especially in the age of social media where information is shared at the click of a button, and where scientific fact and opinion become indistinguishable to the casual reader.

Coming from a social science background, I am drawn to methodologies that intertwine textual rhetorical analyses with qualitative inquiry in order to understand a broader context of the discourse under study.