I am a scholar of rhetoric and writing in digital spaces. I have been intrigued by Internet culture and technologically mediated discourse ever since my days of LiveJournal Harry Potter roleplay. Because of my upbringing as a child of the internet, my research examines intersecting facets of identity—gender, sexuality, race, age, class, disability, religion—asking how these differences mediate our experiences with digital tools and interfaces, and in turn how those technologies influence the writing of our diverse selves.
I am Assistant Professor of Technical Communication in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. I received my PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from Purdue University, and received bachelor’s degrees in Professional Writing and Women’s & Gender Studies and a master’s in Digital Rhetoric & Professional Writing, from Michigan State University. Go green and boiler up!
In spring 2026, I will…
- present…
- “Jobs in English and Transdisciplinary Studies (JETS): Distributed mentoring frameworks for job market preparation” with Kailyn Shartel Hall (University of Tennessee at Martin), Marisa Yerace (Weber State University), Nasiba Norova (Metropolitan State University), Ghada Seifeddine, and Bradley Dilger (Purdue University), at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Cleveland, OH (March 4–7)
- research…
- generative AI applications for social media message-testing, in partnership with marketing professionals from Georgia Tech Institute Communications
- sustainable community-based learning, by launching a pilot of a two-semester curricular partnership experience where humanities students collaborate with nonprofit organizations to create flexible and feasible digital media strategy
- Georgia Tech Computational Media undergraduates Ashna Kasireddy and Milly Zheng are the first two interns in this program, working with SHOWAbility and TimeSlips Creative Storytelling
- write…
- chapters on technology training for older adults and generational design for my monograph, Older Adults, Aging, and Technical Communication, based on my 2022 Computers and Composition Hugh Burns Award-winning dissertation, Digital Age: A Study of Older Adults’ User Experiences with Technology
- an Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (ACM-SIGDOC) paper on teaching risk communication through the local crisis case study of the 2024 Atlanta water main breaks
- build…
- infrastructure for the ACM-SIGDOC Student Research Competition (SRC) with SRC Co-Chair Bradley Dilger (Purdue University), mentoring undergraduate and graduate students on developing their research to present at the 2026 conference in St. Paul, MN (October 23–24)
- relationships with 6 Georgia arts nonprofits for LMC 3415: Content Strategy, a class where students build websites and social media to put their growing research, writing, and design skills into practice in service of community partners
- a new section of LMC 3206: Communication and Culture, centered on “Disability, Accessibility, and Culture”
Recently, I have presented on…
- “Community-Based Learning Meets Design Thinking: Tracing Collaboration with Nonprofits in Technical and Professional Communication Classes and a Student Social Impact Organization” (with Natasha Valluri, Georgia Tech MS-HCI student), at the ACM-SIGDOC Conference in Lubbock, TX (October 2025)
- “Against the Reading Response: Digital Meaning Making Through Social Annotation and Authentic Content Genres” (with Gavin P. Johnson, Texas Christian University), at the IEEE Professional Communication Society Conference in Sønderborg, Denmark (July 2025)
When I am not hastily typing or Photoshopping, I enjoy trying all of the different foods on Buford Highway, binge-watching British comedy on Netflix, collecting teapots, singing in a choir, and volunteering with the AARP Foundation.
Please feel free to contact me by email at allegra [at] gatech [dot] edu. I would love to have a conversation with you online.