Janene Amyx Davison
Rhetoric of self-care, embodiment, material/visual research, and activism
Current Research
Are you an activist who advocates on behalf of your own body? I am currently seeking body-rights activists, over the age of 18, who are fighting on behalf of themselves and others in areas such as gender-identity rights, reproductive rights, dis/ability rights, access to healthcare, or other injustices related to the physical body, Recognizing the stress and vulnerability that stems from such personal activism, I am studying self-care practices that might help to better sustain such activism, with a particular attention to the environments and tools of self-care.
If you agree and are selected for participation in this research, I will consider you a co-creator of knowledge building, and I will work very hard to respect your work, time, and boundaries. You will be asked to 1) fill out a short survey about yourself and your activist work/self-care (estimated 5-10 minutes), 2) take photographs of activities that sustain, nurture or help you flourish as a person, as you are able and shared as you are comfortable (time will vary), and 3) participate in an online interview about your activist and self-care practices (60-90 minutes). Optionally, I will also give you the opportunity to review my conclusions and have a follow-up conversation.
If that sounds workable for you, then please email me and I'll forward you the consent forms, which have been approved by Galveston College’s Institutional Review Board, and that can be signed digitally. Thank you, and I hope I have the opportunity to work with you!
Janene Amyx Davison, PhD
Professor, Speech Communication
Self-Care of Body-Rights Activists
Conference Presentations
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Teaching & Mentoring as Activism: Flourishing Possibilities – presented at Texas Community College Teachers Association conference, March 2022
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(Re)writing vulnerable bodies: Exploring fat activists’ self-care through texts, tools, and bodies – presented at the Minds, Means, and Materials conference through University of Nevada, Reno, January 2021
Conference presentation link
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Rhetorical Analysis of Food Labels in First Year Writing - presented at the Galveston College National Endowment for the Humanities Foodways conference, April 2019
Conference video presentation
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Foodways as a Portal to Intercultural Competency in the Classroom – presented as part of a panel titled, High Impact Pedagogical Practices for Promoting Intercultural Understanding Across Communities at the Association of Rhetoric and Writing Studies, October 2018
Conference presentation link
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Mapping Harvey: A Tale of Two Houston Neighborhoods – presented as part of a panel titled, Lessons From Hurricane Harvey: Technical Communication Advocacy in Response to a Natural Disaster at Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, March 2018
Conference presentation link
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Rhetorically Listening to Things: Glyphosate and Material Consequence – presented as part of a panel titled, Rhetorical Listening Approaches in the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine at Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 2018
Conference presentation link
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Foundational Knowledge in Rhetoric of Health & Medicine – participated in a round table discussion as part of the Medical Rhetorics Roundtable: Examining Intersections and Connections Within and Beyond Our Field at Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 2018
Conference speaking notes
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Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Using Reading Apprenticeship for College Readiness – co-presented with Michael Berberich at the College Reading and Learning Association, November 2017
Conference presentation
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A Tale of Two QEPs – co-presented with Galveston College colleagues and Guilford Technical Community College at the SACS-COC Annual meeting, December 2015
Conference presentation
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Teaching Students to Read Deeper Across Disciplines – co-presented at NISOD’s International Conference on Teaching and Learning, May 2015
Conference presentation
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Nailed it! How one community college nailed the CS 3.3.1 series and the Quality Enhancement Plan – co presented with Dr. Larry Root at the Texas Association of Institutional Researchers annual conference, March 2015
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Nailed it! How one community college nailed the CS 3.3.1 series and the Quality Enhancement Plan – co presented with Dr. Larry Root at the Texas A&M Assessment conference, February 2015
Conference speaking notes
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A Collaborative Approach to the Communication Model, Great Ideas for Teaching Speech (GIFTS) – presented during a breakout session at Texas Speech Communication Association annual conference, October 2012
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Communicating with the iGeneration – presented during a breakout session at Texas Speech Communication Association annual conference, October 2010
Sketchnotes of Readings
Click thumbnail images for a pop-out view
Brown, James J., J. (2014). The machine that therefore I am. Philosophy & Rhetoric, 47(4), 494–514.
https://doi.org/10.1007/sl0869-007-9037-x
Carlson, E. B. (2019). Metis as Embodied, Technofeminist Intervention: Rhetorically Listening to Periods for
Pence. Computers and Composition, 51, 14–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2018.11.002
Davis, D. (2010). Agency. In Inessential Solidarity: Rhetoric and Foreigner Relations (pp. 86–113). Pittsburgh, PA: University
of Pittsburgh Press.
Davis, D. (2014). Autozoography : Notes Toward a Rhetoricity of the Living. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 47(4),
533–553. https://doi.org/10.1353/par.2014.0026
Edbauer, J. (2005). Unframing Models of Public Distribution : From Rhetorical Situation to Rhetorical Ecologies.
Rhetoric Society of America, 35(4), 5–24.
Ede, L., & Lunsford, A. (1984). Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in
Composition Theory and Composition Theory and Pedagogy. College Composition and Communication,
35(2), 155–171. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/358093
Frank, L. (2010). Heidegger , Captain Paul Watson , and the " Look " of Leviathan. JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory,
30(3), 583–617.
Grabill, J. T., & Simmons, W. M. (1998). Toward a critical rhetoric of risk communication: Producing citizens
and the role of technical communicators. Technical Communication Quarterly, 7(4), 415–441.
Halberstam, J. (2011). Dude, Where’s my Phallus?: Forgetting, losing, looping. In Queer Art of Failure (pp. 53–86).
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Haraway, D. J. (1991). A cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth
century: An ironic dream of common language for women in the integrated circuit. In Simians, cyborgs,
and women: The reinvention of nature (pp. 149–163, 173–181). New York, NY: Routledge. Retrieved from https://monoskop.org/images/f/f3/Haraway_Donna_J_Simians_Cyborgs_and_Women_The_
Reinvention_of_Nature.pdf
Johnson, R. R. (1997). Audience Involved: Toward a Participatory Model of Writing. Computers and Composition, 14(3),
361–376.
Ong, W. J. (1975). The Writer’s Audience Is Always a Fiction. PMLA, 90(1), 9–21. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/461344
Ore, E. (2017). Pushback : A Pedagogy of Care. Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language,
Composition, and Culture, 17(1), 9–33. https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-3658366
Plato, (1993). Symposium and Phaedrus (B. Jowett, Trans.). New York: Dover Publications.
Stone, S. (1992). The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture,
and Media Studies, 10(2 29), 150–176. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-10-2_29-150
Walters, S. (2014). Unruly Rhetorics: Disability, Animality, and new Kinship Compositions. PMLA, 129(3),
471–477.
Warin, M. (2015). Material Feminism, Obesity Science and the Limits of Discursive Critique. Body and Society, 21(4),
48–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X14537320
Wolford, R. (2016). When a Woman Owns the Farm: A Case for Diachronic and Synchronic Rhetorical
Agency. Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture, (123). Retrieved from
http://enculturation.net/when-a-woman-owns-the-farm
