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ARSTM Article of the Year Award

The Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine’s (ARSTM) Article of the Year Award recognizes the most outstanding rhetoric of science and technology-related article or book chapter published the preceding calendar year.

Call for Nominations

The Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine’s (ARSTM) Article of the Year Award recognizes the most outstanding rhetoric of science, technology, or medicine-related article or book chapter published the preceding calendar year. Articles or book chapters upholding a range of expertise, diverse canons, epistemological foundations, positionalities, and ways of knowing are eligible, and authors of these works (and/or their nominators) are encouraged to apply for the award. The award committee, which is committed to Anti-Racist Scholarly Reviewing Practices, is now accepting applications for works officially published in the 2023 calendar year!**

Criteria for selection include:

  1. How well the article or book chapter extends and/or enacts practical and theoretical knowledge related to the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine
  2. The article or book chapter’s potential for cross-disciplinary fertilization and/or public engagement
  3. The article or book chapter’s potential for teaching future generations of rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine scholars
  4. The article or book chapter’s dedication to inclusive language, examples, and citational practices
  5. The overall quality of writing and thinking

Nominations should be sent by someone well acquainted with the nominee’s work. Self-nominations are encouraged. The nomination must include:

  • Contact information for the authors of the nominated article or book chapter, including affiliation, position, and email address
  • A copy of the article or book chapter being nominated

Note: Lead authors who have won previously cannot be nominated again within 5 years.

**Works published in the 2023 calendar year do not include online-first or advance publication. Final publication of the article or book chapter (whether print or digital) must have taken place between January 1 and December 31, 2023.

Submission deadline: September 20th, 2024

To submit please send materials to the ARSTM Article of the Year Award Committee Chair, Jean Goodwin, at jegoodwi@ncsu.edu and use the subject header Nomination: ARSTM Article of the Year Award.

Award Committee Members for 2024:

  • Gabe Cutrufello, York College of Pennsylvania
  • Jean Goodwin (Chair), North Carolina State University
  • Kate Maddalena, University of Toronto Mississauga

Previous Awardees

2024

Jacob Greene
Department of English, Arizona State University

Greene, J. (2023). Epideictic Distance: The Complacent Publics of Environmental Rephotography. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 53(5), 657-669.

Honorable mention:

  • Campbell, L., & Miller, E. L. (2023). Pedagogies of Rhetorical Empathy-in-Action: Role Playing and Story Sharing in Healthcare Education. Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, 6(1), 36-63.
  • Szymanski, E. A. (2023). Conversations with Other-than-Human Creatures: Unpacking the Ambiguity of “with” for Multispecies Rhetorics. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 53(2), 138-152.

2023

Kristin LaFollette
Department of English, University of Southern Indiana

LaFollette, K. (2022). Exploring embodiment through the rhetoric of health and medicine: An arts-based, transgenre pedagogy. Across the Disciplines 19(3/4), 180–198.

John A. Lynch
Department of Communication, University of Cincinnati

Lynch, J. A. (2022). Revising the bioethics story: Memory and story in precarious times. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 65(4), 521–528.

Honorable mention:

  • Rauchberg, J. S. (2022). Imagining a neuroqueer technoscience. Studies in Social Justice 16(2), 370–388.

2022

Jamal-Jared Alexander
Department of English, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Avery C. Edenfield
Department of English, Utah State University

Alexander, J. & Edenfield, A. C. (2021). Health and wellness as resistance: Tactical folk medicine. Technical Communication Quarterly 30(3), 241-256.

Honorable mention:

  • Salzano, M. & Yang, M. (2022). Going off scripts: Emotional labor and technoliberal managerialism. Critical Studies in Media Communication 39(2), 78-91.
  • Jones, M. (2021). A Counterhistory of Rhetorical Ecologies. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 51(4), 336-352.

2021

Shui-yin Sharon Yam
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, University of Kentucky

Yam, S. S. (2020). Visualizing birth stories from the margin: Toward a reproductive justice model of rhetorical analysis. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 50(1), 19-34.

Honorable mention:

  • Bloom-Pojar, R. & Barker, M. (2020). The role of confianza in community-engaged work for reproductive justice. Reflections: A Journal of Community Engaged Writing and Rhetoric, 20(2), 84-101.
  • Bloomfield, E. F., et al. (2020). The effects of establishing intimacy and consubstantiality on group discussions about climate change solutions. Science Communication, 42(3), 369-394.
  • Miller, C. R., & Hartzog, M. (2020). “Tree Thinking”: The Rhetoric of Tree Diagrams in Biological Thought. Poroi: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Rhetorical Analysis & Invention, 15(2).

2020

Robin E. Jensen, Melissa M. Parks, Benjamin W. Mann, Kourtney Maison & Madison A. Krall
Department of Communication, University of Utah

Jensen, R. E., Parks, M. M., Mann, B. W., Maison, K., & Krall, M. A. (2019). Mapping Nature’s scientist: The posthumous demarcation of Rosalind Franklin’s crystallographic data, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 105(3), 297-318.

Honorable mention:

  • Bloomfield, E. F. (2019). The Rhetoric of Energy Darwinism: Neoliberal Piety and Market Autonomy in Economic Discourse, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 49(4), 320-341.
  • Pietrucci, P., & Ceccarelli, L. (2019). Scientist Citizens: Rhetoric and Responsibility in L’Aquila. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 22(1), 95-128.

2019

Jennifer Edwell, Sarah Singer, Jordynn Jack
Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Edwell, M., Singer, S., & Jack, J. (2017). Healing Arts: Rhetorical Techne as Medical (Humanities) Intervention. Technical Communication Quarterly, 27(1), 50-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2018.1425960

2018

Melissa Carrion
Department of Writing and Linguistics, Georgia Southern University

Carrion, M. (2017). “You need to do your research”: Vaccines, contestable science, and maternal epistemology. Public Understanding of Science, 27(3), 310-324. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662517728024

Katy Rothfelder and Davi Johnson Thornton
Department of Communication Studies, Southwestern University

Rothfelder, K. & Johnson Thornton, D. (2017). Man interrupted: Mental illness narrative as a rhetoric of proximity. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 47(4), 359-382. https://doi.org/10.1080/02773945.2017.1279343

2017

Bridie McGreavy
Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Maine

McGreavy, B. (2016). Resilience as discourse. Environmental Communication, 10(1), 104-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2015.1014390

2016

Judy Z. Segal
Department of English, University of British Columbia

Segal, J. Z. (2015). The rhetoric of female sexual dysfunction: Faux feminism and the FDA. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 187(12). doi: 10.1503/cmaj.150363

2015

Michelle Gibbons
Department of Communication, University of Cincinnati

Gibbons, M. (2014). Beliefs about the mind as doxastic inventional resource: Freud, neuroscience and the case of Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 44(5), 427-448.

Lauren R. Kolodziejski
Department of Communication, California Polytechnic State University

Kolodziejski, L. R. (2014). Harms of hedging in scientific discourse: Andrew Wakefield and the origins of the autism vaccine controversy. Technical Communication Quarterly, 23(3), 165-183.

2014

John Lynch
Department of Communication, University of Cincinnati

Lynch, J. (2013). “‘Prepare to believe’: The Creation Museum as embodied conversion narrative. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 16(1).

2013

Risa Applegarth
English Department, University of North Carolina Greensboro

Applegarth, R. (2012). Rhetorical scarcity: Spatial and economic inflections on genre change. College Composition and Communication, 63(3), 453-483.

Kenneth Walker
English Department, University of Arizona

Lynda Walsh
English Department, University of Nevada, Reno

Walker, K. & Walsh, L. (2012). “‘No one yet knows what the ultimate consequences may be’: How Rachel Carson transformed scientific uncertainty into a site for public participation in Silent Spring. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 26(1), 3-34.

2012

S. Scott Graham
English Department, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Graham, S. S. (2011). “Dis-ease or disease? Ontological rarefaction in the
medical-industrial complex. Journal of Medical Humanities, 32(3), 167-187.