justalewis

I am an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Nevada where I teach courses in Professional Writing and assist in coordinating the campus-wide Writing in Disciplines program. My research considers the ways actors coordinate activity in digital spaces. In so doing, I draw attention to the ways that human-technology relations create vast digital archives and database architectures. Using a mixed-method research methodology heavily influenced by Activity Theory, Rhetorical Genre Studies and discourse analyses, my work explores the iterative relationship among language, individuals, tools and communities in networked digital environments. By articulating digital objects as rhetorical genres, my work extends investigation into the medial and agenic capacities of objects to shape our collective digital experience. In addition to researching digital tool use in participatory archives, I’m also working on a project that explores alternative methodologies for creating conceptual data models for database architecture. Drawing on computational analyses of genre-based corpa, this work emphasizes the rhetorical aspects of database architecture and provides novel methodologies for developing Entity-Relationship data models. When not researching, I spend time teaching courses in professional writing, technical communication, digital writing, rhetorical theory and composition history. I also spend time working as the Design Editor at Literacy in Composition Studies. In my role, I am responsible for maintenance of our open-access website. I also design and layout the digital and print versions of LiCS. As a contributing editor, I work with the editorial team to review and revise manuscripts toward publication.