Kimberly Emmons

Oviatt Professor & Associate Professor of English

Case Western Reserve University

Description of Work:

I am particularly interested in the language used by individuals to navigate health systems and the health/illness identities they fashion out of the discourses that surround them. My work focuses on depression, anxiety, and stress as diagnosed illnesses as well as cultural concepts. For me, the language used to describe these illnesses – especially in popular media and non-specialist genres (memoirs, consumer websites, etc.) – comes to shape the ways that healthy and ill individuals understand their experiences and monitor their own and others’ behaviors. I am currently focusing on the so-called epidemic of stress among college-aged students in the US.

Socials:

https://casfaculty.case.edu/kimberly-emmons/