Sarah Colbert graduated in May 2016 with a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Missouri. She is interested in issues of intellectual freedom in both academia and public library settings, youth services, fandoms, and how to incorporate all of those things into librarianship. Sarah received a bachelor’s degree in social science education in 2008, taught high school English in rural Missouri for five years, and worked as a barista at a global coffee chain for several months prior to pursuing her master’s degree. When she is not studying or working, Sarah enjoys reading, crafting, and traveling.
Jordan Doll, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from Oberlin College with high honors in political science. Her academic interests include the U.S. Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendment, gender under the law, and what has been called the hyper-political-correctness in modern higher education. In her free time, she likes writing creatively, playing Dragon Age Inquisition, and cooking. She lives in Chicago with her cat, Irene.
Brandi N. Frisby (PhD, 2010, West Virginia University) is an associate professor of instructional communication at the University of Kentucky. She studies faculty-student relationships and student learning and has published her work in Communication Education, Computers and Education, and The Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, among others.
Jane Gavin-Hebert, MA, MSW, works as a trauma therapist at Avalon Sexual Assault Centre and sessional faculty at the Dalhousie University School of Social Work. She holds graduate degrees in women and gender studies and social work. Jane lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her daughter, Kayla, and dog, Lucy.
Stephanie Houston Grey is an associate professor of communication studies at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Her scholarship explores the intersections of science, society, and culture, with emphases on food politics and environmentalism and the impacts of accelerating consumption on vulnerable populations and bodies. Her coauthored book Rooted Resistance: The Rhetorical Struggle for Agrarian Place in Modern American Culture is under contract with University of Arkansas Press and her single-authored book Live from the Sacrifice Zone: Citizen Resistance in Petro-Colonial Louisiana is under contract with West Virginia University Press. Her chapter on eating disorder triggers extends a line of research that has included work on the pro-ana movement and its critics, as well as portrayals of eating disorders and obesity in popular culture. She is the editor of Louisiana Speaks, the journal of the Louisiana Communication Association and, as a local environmental activist, has written for Greenpeace and appeared frequently in the media. She is a resident of Covington, Louisiana.
Davin Helkenberg is a PhD candidate in the library and information science program at the University of Western Ontario. Her doctoral research examines fictional narratives of sexuality in young adult literature and explores, through in-depth interviews, how these narratives have informed the sexual lives of young women readers. Her research is also concerned with the role public libraries can play, as authoritative community sites, in supporting unfettered access to sexually explicit materials for youth— intended for both educational and recreational purposes. Davin’s broader interests include research methodology for sensitive topics, creative writing, and the political economy of independent book publishing. She is originally from Surrey, British Columbia.
Pinky Hota is assistant professor of anthropology and affiliated faculty with the Study of Women and Gender and the South Asia Concentration at Smith College. Her research and teaching focuses on minority politics,
indigenous recognition, and conservative politics in South Asia
Barbara M. Jones devoted her career to academic librarianship, serving as director of four: Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY) in New York City; University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls; Union College in Schenectady, NY; and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She published, wrote, spoke, and conducted workshops on freedom of expression around the world. Her last position was director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation in Chicago. She was a James Scholar and received her BA with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her MLS with high honors at Columbia University in New York, and her PhD in History from the University of Minnesota/ Twin Cities. She continues to serve as a liaison/advisor to the FAIFE Committee of IFLA (Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression of the International Federation of Library Associations.) She is currently coauthoring a book on the topic of “information poverty” and serves on the Library Board of the Urbana (IL) Free Library.
Greg Langner is the former assistant basic course director of oral communication for the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Cal State LA is also where he earned his master’s in communication studies, and bachelor’s in theatre arts and dance. Langner is currently a PhD student in communication and performance studies at Louisiana State University. His research spans from critical pedagogy to popular media to religious rhetoric, each intersecting with identity performance. He has experience in curriculum building, implementation, and redesign, and continues to develop practical classroom applications for pedagogical scholarship.
Kristine Leibhart, MA, is a member of the English department faculty at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, Nebraska. She has spent nearly two decades teaching high school and college-level English courses. At Mid-Plains, she specializes in teaching developmental and adult-level foundational English classes that help prepare today’s students and nontraditional students, particularly those who have recently been active in the U.S. military.
Joe C. Martin is a faculty lecturer in instructional communication and research at the University of Kentucky. He earned his MDiv (2010) and his ThM (2012) from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and is currently pursuing a PhD in instructional communication at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include instructional communication, instructional technology, and the biology of human communication.
Julie Matos is the assistant basic course director of oral communication and a lecturer in the Communication Studies Department at California State University, Los Angeles. Matos received her BA and MA in communication studies from Cal State LA. Her research focuses primarily on the intersections of communication, gender, and women’s rights. Outside of higher education, Julie has taught English as a second language in China and leadership and communication classes at charter schools in the Los Angeles area. At Cal State LA, Matos has worked closely with the basic course director to redesign the basic public speaking course, has developed new learning materials and curricula, and served on the managing editing team for a custom public speaking textbook designed specifically for the student body at Cal State LA.
Jami McFarland is currently a second-year PhD student in the department of women’s studies and feminist research at the University of Western Ontario. McFarland’s PhD research focuses on representations of sexuality in later life, with a specific focus on the intersection of discourses on age, gender, sexuality, and ability. McFarland received her MA in women’s studies at the University of Ottawa and her BA in English studies from Nipissing University. She has published articles on issues of sexuality, identity, and young adult fiction in the Journal of Dracula Studies and Journal of Popular Romance Studies. McFarland has broad-ranging research interests in queer representation, sexuality studies, media studies, feminist theory, critical disability studies, and fat studies.
Gretchen Oltman, JD, PhD, is an assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. She is a licensed attorney and certified English teacher with over two decades of experience in education, including roles in teaching and administration. She is the author of Violence in Student Writing: A Guide for School Administrators and coauthor of Law Meets Literature: A Novel Approach to the English Classroom.
Kristina Ruiz-Mesa (PhD University of Colorado, Boulder) is an assistant professor of communication studies and the basic course director of oral communication at California State University, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Cal State LA faculty, Ruiz-Mesa, a New Jersey native, worked in diversity and retention at her alma mater, Villanova University in Pennsylvania. At Villanova, Ruiz-Mesa founded the St. Thomas of Villanova Scholars (STOVS) program, a residential academic bridge program designed to prepare underrepresented students for college success. Her previous research on the academic impact of experiencing racial microaggressions in higher education has been used to create programming and to improve support services for underrepresented students in programs around the United States. Currently, Dr. Ruiz-Mesa’s research involves critical communication pedagogy, identity formation, and improving communicative practices for diversity, retention, and inclusion in U.S. institutions of higher education.
Susan Stearns is a professor of communication studies at Eastern Washington University. Her research interests include instructional design with a particular interest in increasing student learning by encouraging students’ responsibility for their own learning. An unexpected and pleasant outcome of this research is the discovery that these instructional techniques have fostered student confidence and pride in their own educational development. Further areas of research include Erving Goffman’s work on presentation of self—that is, impression management, conversational ploys, and deception, and the concept of stigma.
Kari Storla is a PhD candidate in communication at the University of Southern California, where she teaches courses on public speaking and argumentation and advocacy. Her research focuses on the intersection of rhetoric, gender, social movements, and trauma. Specifically, she examines the shifting interactions between gender ideologies and antisexual-assault movements since the late nineteenth century. As one of the Teaching Assistant Fellows at the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching, Kari has trained new teaching assistants and designed workshops on a variety of pedagogical issues. She recently received USC’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Holly Taylor is a feminist activist and scholar currently living in London, Ontario. She holds a master of arts degree in women’s studies and feminist research from Western University, and a bachelor of arts degree
in political science and women’s studies from Saint Mary’s University. Her contribution to this book was inspired by experiences teaching and learning in university classrooms, and working with marginalized communities impacted by violence and trauma through nonprofit and grassroots advocacy work. Her academic interests include feminism, reproductive justice, sexuality studies, queer theory, sex work, and intersectionality.
Elizabeth Tolman is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Theatre at South Dakota State University. She teaches a variety of communication courses including interpersonal communication, communication theory, and communication and gender. She also serves as the women’s and gender studies coordinator and enjoys organizing events and teaching introduction to women’s studies. Her interests include service learning, online instruction, and communication and gender.
Bonnie Washick is a postdoctoral research associate in the Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies Departments at the University of Illinois. Her scholarly interests lie at the intersection of contemporary political theory, feminist thought and activism, and digital media studies. Her research explores how public speech practices affirm or challenge the ideal of an individuated, independent, sovereign democratic subject. She is particularly interested in the ways in which public speech addresses structural violence and vulnerability.