Books
Stepping Into Zion: Hatzaad Harishon, Black Jews, and the Remaking of Jewish Identity. University of Alabama Press, Series in Rhetoric, Culture, and Social Critique, 2014.
Jewish Rhetorics, edited by Michael Benard-Donals and Janice W. Fernheimer. Brandeis University Press, 2014.
Networks of Rhetorical Action and Resistance: Fela and Chaim Perelman’s Social Sphere. This monograph argues that Chaim Perelman, his wife Fela, and their network of Belgian Resistance leaders enacted the model of rhetorical action later developed in the The New Rhetoric Project. This project is in development; I spent two summers (2009, 2010) researching archival materials related to the Perelman’s resistance to German Occupation in Belgium and participation in the Aliyah Bet. (Prospectus in progress).
Select Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Heuristics for Broader Assessment of Effectiveness and Usability in Technology-Mediated Technical Communication.” Roger A. Grice, Audrey G. Bennett, Janice W. Fernheimer, Cheryl Geisler, Robert Krull, Raymond A. Lutzky, Matthew G.J. Rolph, Patricia Search, and James P. Zappen. (forthcoming Technical Communication).
“Transdisciplinary Itexts and the Future of Web-Scale Collaboration.” With Lisa Litterio and Jim Hendler. Journal of Business and Technical Communication. July 2011. 322-337.
“Talmidai Rhetoricae: ‘Drashing Up Models and Methods for Jewish Rhetorical Studies.”Introduction to special issue of College English: “Composing Jewish Rhetorics” Guest Editor: Janice Fernheimer. July 2010. 577-597.
“Collaborative Convergences in Research and Pedagogy: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Writing with Wikis,” with Dr. Dean Nieusma, Dr. Lei Chi, Dr. Lupita Montoya, Thomas Kujala, and Andrew LaPadula. Computers and Composition Online. Fall 2009.
“Black Jewish Identity Conflict: A Divided Universal Audience and the Impact of Dissociative Disruption.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly. Volume 39. January 2009, p. 46-72.
“From Jew to Israelite: Making Uncomfortable Communions and The New Rhetoric’s Tools for Invention.” Argumentation and Advocacy. Guest Editor. David Frank. Spring 2008, p. 198-212.
“Bridging the Divide: Blogs in the Composition Classroom, ” with Tom Nelson. Currents in Electronic Literacy.Volume 9. December 2005.
Select Book Chapters Published
“Arguing from Difference: Cooper, Emerson, Guizot, and a More Harmonious America.” Speaking Our Minds: Black Women’s Thought in the Nineteenth Century. Ed. Kristin Waters and Carol B. Conaway. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University of Vermont Press, 2007. 287-305.
*Recipient of The Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize for best anthology about African American women's history for 2007.
“Breaking the Commandments of Holocaust Representation? Conflicting Genre Expectations in Audience Responses to Schindler’s List and Life is Beautiful.”Beyond Life is Beautiful: Comedy and Tragedy in the Cinema of Roberto Benigni. Ed. Grace Russo Bullaro. Leicester, UK; Troubador Publishing, 2005. 292-321.
Projects in Progress
The Women in Bourbon Oral History Project
· This project fills a gap in both scholarly and popular attention to the many women who play a key role in Kentucky’s $8.6 billion dollar bourbon industry (KDA). Advancing much needed work in diversity, equity, and inclusion, this project will document the extensive record of women who have helped shape the bourbon industry and the culture of bourbon that surrounds it. The project will include a variety of women’s voices representing multiple perspectives (including but not limited to Black women and other women of color), and will be established in partnership with the University of Kentucky’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, the James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits, and advanced students in Bourbon Oral History.
· This project was launched in conjunction with students enrolled in WRD 569/HIS 595 Bourbon Oral History in Spring 21 and builds upon the successful model of student research developed with the Jewish Kentucky Oral History Project. This model trains both undergraduate and graduate students in professional oral history methods while providing them with access to leading women in one of the most lucrative industries in the Commonwealth; the chance to make history each time they conduct an original interview; and opportunities to publicly present their original research.
· To date 24 interviews have been collected; over the next 3-5 years the project aims to collect 100-150 interviews of female industry leaders.
America’s Chosen Spirit: Distilling the Jewish Roots of Kentucky Bourbon 2013-present. with illustrator JT Waldman
· This historical fiction graphic novel and transmedia project highlights the influences of Jews, women, African Americans, and immigrants on Kentucky’s iconic Bourbon industry and consists of four main components: a serial webcomic; a podcast series; a sip-and-study series, and an Omeka-based repository of curated primary materials which form the foundation and inspiriation for the historical fiction webcomic.
· https://www.colorado.edu/archivetransformed/2018-archive-transformed/2018-archive-transformed-cohort/americas-chosen-spirit
· Four seasons: 10 chapters each, season 1 in progress with anticipated release in September 2022.
