Jennifer Nish

Portrait of Jennifer in a green sweater.

Contact

jmnish@mtu.edu
Walker 304

Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition
Academy of Teaching Excellence

Ph.D., English, University of Kansas
B.A., English & Psychology, University of Nebraska at Lincoln

Biography

Dr. Nish's research engages with the ways that rhetorical practices and systems of power intersect, especially in relation to activist rhetoric that circulates digitally and transnationally. Her book, Activist Literacies: Transnational Feminisms and Social Media Rhetorics argues that students, researchers, and members of the public need more robust concepts and frameworks for understanding and engaging with activism. The book provides concepts and tools that readers can use to meet this need.

Her ongoing research projects focus on three themes: the contributions of transnational feminist rhetorical scholarship to the field of rhetorical studies; the activism and community wisdom of people with Long Covid and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME); and the ways that the field of rhetoric and composition engages with contemporary globalization.

Research Interests

transnational feminism
activist rhetoric
disability studies
digital media
writing program administration
rhetorical genre studies

Book

Activist Literacies

Recent Publications

Nish, Jennifer. “Why ME and Long Covid Communities Need Disability Justice.” Introduction to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches (3rd Edition), Eds. L. Ayu Saraswati, Barbara L. Shaw, and Heather Rellihan. Oxford University Press. (In press.)
Al-Khateeb, Mais, Sweta Baniya, Rebecca Dingo, and Jennifer Nish. “The Necessity and Urgency of Transnational Feminist Politics for Rhetorical Studies.”
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminist Rhetoric. Eds. Jacqueline Rhodes and Suban Nur Cooley. Routledge. (In press.)
Bastian, Heather, and Jennifer Nish. “Toward Disruptive Agency.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 75, no. 2, 2023.
Hsu, V. Jo and Jennifer Nish. "Crip Letters: Storying Slowness and Re/Writing Academic Work." College Composition and Communication, vol. 75, no. 1, 2023.
Nish, Jennifer. Activist Literacies: Transnational Feminisms and Social Media Rhetorics. University of South Carolina Press, 2022.
Nish, Jennifer, Kimberly A. Williams, and L. Ayu Saraswati. "Marching and Crossing Borders: A Transnational Conversation." Feminist and Queer Theories: A Transnational Reader, eds. L. Ayu Saraswati and Barbara Shaw. Oxford University Press. 2020. 
Nish, Jennifer. "Representing Precarity, Disavowing Politics: The Exceptional(ist) Appeal of Humans of New York." Peitho, vol 20, no. 2, 2018.
Nish, Jennifer. "Spreadable Genres, Multiple Publics: The Pixel Project's Digital Campaigns to Stop Violence against Women." Genre and the Performance of Publics, eds. Mary Jo Reiff and Anis Bawarshi. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. 2016.

Presentations

“More than Just Rhetoric: Decolonial and Transnational Approaches to Rhetorical Studies.” Roundtable participant. Rhetoric Society of America, Denver, CO. (2024)
“Movement Rhetoric/Rhetoric’s Movements.” Roundtable participant. Rhetoric Society of America, Denver, CO. (2024)
"Making Publishing in Peitho Transparent," Feminisms and Rhetorics, Atlanta, GA. (2023)
"A Transnational Feminist Rhetorical Approach to Disability Justice," Feminisms and Rhetorics, Atlanta, GA. (2023)
"Transnational Feminism and Disability Justice in Chronic Disease Activism," Rhetoric in Society (Rhetoric Society of Europe), Tübingen, Germany. (2023)

Courses Taught at Michigan Tech

Disability Studies and Disability Justice (graduate)
Advanced composition (undergraduate)