Rachel Bailey

Title: PhD Student, Graduate Instructor

University: University of Georgia, Communication Studies

Description of Work:

Experience from an earlier career in the U.S. healthcare supply chain media informs my RHM scholarly identity, as well as training in literary criticism. Currently, much of my time is spent distinguishing the bio-necro-politics of U.S. healthcare from a more European understanding. Questions I ask include: How does the political economy of U.S. healthcare and America’s unique racism and religiosity produce its unique bio-necro-politics? How does that combination impact the rhetorical act of diagnosing patients and determining disease and health? How does it impact the delivery of healthcare and drive technological innovation over equitable access? What rhetorical strategies and political structures sustain the high cost and disproportionate quality of U.S. healthcare? How does Western medicine compare with Eastern and traditional modalities, and what rhetorical devices work to maintain biomedical authority? In addition, I investigate the political rhetoric of U.S. healthcare reform and health communication research related to U.S. health disparities and patient-clinician communication. While honoring an interdisciplinary approach to rhetorical research, I primarily rely on materialist rhetorical theories, critical cultural theory, narrative theory, health communication theories, and histories of health and health policy to inform my sense making.