I study how power differentials are embedded in language—particularly how institutional and social discourse can reinscribe or resist oppression. Within RHM, I am interested in the complex rhetorical struggle to shape what counts as beneficial. My dissertation uses height as a lens to examine how healthcare rhetoric oppresses bodies, reinforces sociocultural discrimination, and impacts the lived experiences of individuals.

Idiopathic Short Stature (ISS) is a medical classification for people in the lowest percentile of height but who have no underlying pathological condition—that is, they are short but healthy. Despite the lack of a medical condition, human growth hormones may be prescribed for children in order to increase their eventual adult height. Since the purpose of the treatment is ultimately cosmetic, discourse about pediatric HGH and ISS can reveal social attitudes and cultural values which are ideologically embedded in institutional rhetoric. If attitudes about height shape sociocultural power dynamics, then medical rhetoric about height may silently reinscribe privileged identities and contribute to the oppression of individuals with marked bodies.

In addition to healthcare, my research interests include emerging technologies, digital communication, and the circulation of rhetoric.