Jay Dolmage

I have a lovely partner named Heather, a dog named Tito, and two hilarious children named Vern and Fran. I am committed to disability rights in my scholarship, service, and teaching. My work brings together rhetoric, writing, disability studies, and critical pedagogy. My first book, entitled Disability Rhetoric, is due out in 2013 with Syracuse University Press. I am the Founding Editor of the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies.

Reynolds, Nedra and Jay Dolmage. The Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Writing 7th Edition. Boston: Bedford St, Martin’s Press, 2011.

Dolmage, Jay. “Disabled Upon Arrival: The Rhetorical Construction of Race and Disability at Ellis Island.” Cultural Critique. Winter 2011.

Dolmage, Jay and Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson. “Refiguring Rhetorica: Linking Feminist Rhetoric and Disability Studies.” Rhetorica in Motion: Feminist Rhetorical Methods and Methodologies. Eileen E. Schell and Kelly Rawson, Eds. Pittsburgh: U. Pittsburgh Press, 2010. 23-38.

Dolmage, Jay. “Metis, Metis, Mestiza, Medusa: Rhetorical Bodies Across Rhetorical Traditions.” Rhetoric Review 28.1 (January 2009): 1-28.

• SSHRC Insight Development Grant 2011-2013, "A White Man's Country"
• Theresa J. Enos Award, best essay in the journal Rhetoric Review, 2006, for “Breathe Upon us an Even Flame: Hephaestus, History and the Body of Rhetoric.” Rhetoric Review. 25.2. (Spring 2006): 119-140.

My most recent research focuses on the connected rhetorical constructions of disability and race through eugenic, anti-immigration discourse. Specifically, I am interested in historical and contemporary rhetorical geographies of immigration and eugenics, and in the artifacts and technologies that have been used to rhetorically construct “deviant” bodies.

I am also working on an ongoing basis to develop teaching materials, resources, and ideas that would make writing classrooms more accessible for all students. For instance, I am Chair of the College Composition and Communication Committee on Disability Issues, and I maintain a blog that focuses on teaching writing through multiple literacies and modalities.

• Rhetorical theory and history
• Composition theory and pedagogy
• Disability studies