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. From 2021-2023, I was Assistant Professor of Professional Writing in the Department of English at Jacksonville State University (Alabama).
I received my PhD from the Rhetoric and Composition Program at 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 summer 2024, I will be…
- building relationships with Atlanta-area nonprofit organizations for service learning in my fall 2024 LMC 3813 Content Strategy (Special Topics) course, thanks to a generous Short-Term Opportunity for Professional Development and Scholarly Activities (SODA) grant from Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
- presenting “Bridging the Classroom and Workplace: The High-Impact Practices of a Technical and Professional Communication Studio Course” at the 2024 IEEE Professional Communication Society Conference in Pittsburgh, PA (July 2024)
- submitting the proposal for my first monograph, tentatively titled 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
- supervising Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Award-winning undergraduate researcher Natasha Valluri in a qualitative study of the collaborative design work of teams at Bits of Good, a Georgia Tech student organization that builds web apps for nonprofits
In spring 2024, I taught LMC 3206: Communication and Culture and LMC 3813: Content Strategy for Social Media (Special Topics). In both courses, teams of students in Georgia Tech’s Literature, Media, & Communication and Computational Media programs partnered with Atlanta nonprofits (including the Center for Civic Innovation) to build capacity through research, writing, and design.
Recently, I have presented on…
- “Designing Feminist Methodologies: Foregrounding Gender, Positionality, and Justice in Communication Design Research” at the ACM-SIGDOC Conference (October 2023)
- “Developing Student Professional Identities and Portfolios Through a Studio Course” at the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC) Conference (September 2023)
- “‘Who Are We Accountable To?’ Balancing Stakeholders and Compliance in a Grant-Funded Undergraduate Experiential Learning Project” at the virtual Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) conference (June 2023)
When I am not hastily typing or Photoshopping, I enjoy binge-watching British comedy on Netflix, making giant pots of soup, trying new teas, and volunteering with the AARP Foundation.
Please feel free to contact me through any of my social media accounts below, or by email at allegra [at] gatech [dot] edu. I would love to have a conversation with you online.