"As a rhetorician, I'm examining how we use symbols - like language - to connect with and move in communication with others.

As a teacher, I'm trying to model this for my students, and facilitate their own ability to practice it."

In the fall of 2017 I'll be starting on my 10th year of post-secondary study. It wasn't supposed to be like this. By now I was supposed to be teaching high school English in some small community in Ontario, settled into a fulfilling and challenging teaching career.

Instead, I'm up to my neck in doctoral work at the University of Waterloo. The journey to this point has been incredible. After completing an Honours BA in English at Wilfrid Laurier University, I took what was supposed to be a short sojourn into graduate work and did my MA in Rhetoric and Communications Design at the University of Waterloo. During this time I gained an interest in the work and methods of Kenneth Burke, and began applying his theories to my interest in Mennonite culture and writing. That "sojourn," and those intersections with Burke and Mennonite studies, have become defining moments in my academic future.

I did end up completing a BEd, and thoroughly enjoyed my time teaching young people in Waterloo Region. The momentum of those Master's projects on Burke and the Mennonites never came to a halt, however, and so I now find myself back at Waterloo, carrying on an extended version of the ideas that took seed a few years ago. 

I'm excited to be working in an environment that practices excellent English literary criticism while also investing in diverse academic explorations. Where else could a rhetorician study Mennonite literature and work alongside researches devoted to questioning our technological practices and carrying out research in digital abstinence and creative non-use? 

I'm interested in meeting, sharing ideas with, and collaborating alongside others interested in using the humanities to ask what texts, practices, and technologies are shaping our attitudes, our hearts, and our communities.