PhD (Rhetoric), Carnegie Mellon University
MA (English, Co-op), University of Waterloo
BA (English, Honours, Co-op), University of Waterloo
Extension: 42287
Email: brad.mehlenbacher@uwaterloo.ca
Complete Curriculum Vitae
ORCID
Biography
I am a Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo where I research and teach in the rhetoric of scientific, technical, and engineering communication. I received my BA in Honours English Co-op and MA in English Co-op from the Department of English at the University of Waterloo, culminating in co-ops at Bell-Northern Research in Ottawa and the IBM Toronto Software Lab. I earned my PhD in Rhetoric at Carnegie Mellon University. From there, I joined the faculty at NC State University where my research and teaching focused on instruction, technology, and learning. A confluence of factors including my family, and my wife and collaborator, Dr. Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher, made the opportunity to return to Waterloo and to Canada feel both extraordinary and inevitable.
Selected Publications
Books
Mehlenbacher, B. (2010). Instruction and technology: Designs for everyday learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press (won NCTE/CCCC 2012 award for “Best Book in Technical and Scientific Communication”).
Duffy, T. M., Palmer, J. E., & Mehlenbacher, B. (1993). Online help: Design and evaluation. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.
Articles & Chapters
*For a full list of articles, see Google Scholar.
Mehlenbacher, A. R., & Mehlenbacher, B. (2026). A mode of altering and understanding reality. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 54 (1), 49-54.
Mehlenbacher, A. R., & Mehlenbacher, B. (2025). Misinformation as genre function: Insights on the infodemic from a genre-theoretical perspective. Technical Communication Quarterly, 34 (1), 130-144.
Mehlenbacher, B., Balbon, A. P., & Mehlenbacher, A. R. (2024). Synthetic Genres: Expert Genres, Non-Specialist Audiences, and Misinformation in the Artificial Intelligence Age. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 54 (1), 1-27.
Mehlenbacher, B., & Mehlenbacher, A. R. (2021). Peer review in scientific publishing. In C. Hanganu-Bresch, S. Maci, M. Zerbe, & G. Cutrufello (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Scientific Communication (pp. 80-89). New York, NY: Routledge (book won Best Edited Collection by the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum and WAC Clearinghouse).
Mehlenbacher, B., & Mehlenbacher, A. R. (2021). The rhetoric of big data: Collecting, interpreting, and representing in the age of datafication. Poroi: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Rhetorical Analysis & Invention, 16 (1), Article 3.
Mehlenbacher, A. R., & Mehlenbacher, B. (2020). Rogue rhetorical actors: Scientists and the social action of Tweeting. In S. Auken & C. Sunesen (Eds.), Genre in the Climate Debate (pp. 179-193). Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Open Poland.
Selected Fellowships & Awards
- Co-Principal Investigator (with M. A. Paesler, PI, and R. J. Beichner, Co-PI), National Science Foundation (NSF), Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (TUES): Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Grant, $199,998, 2013-2015.
- Co-Principal Investigator (with C. Grant, PI, T. Bowles, Co-PI, and S. Peretti, Co-PI), National Science Foundation (NSF), Innovations in Engineering Education, Curriculum, and Infrastructure (IEECI), $173,592, 2009-2014.
- National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Award for Best Book in Technical and Scientific Communication for Instruction and Technology: Designs for Everyday Learning (MIT Press), 2012.
Current Research
Researching rhetorical strategies for elaborating upon complex transformations brought about by innovations in science, technology, and health in collaboration with Professor Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher entitled “Words for the Metamorphosis.”
Areas of Graduate Supervision
- Rhetoric
- Scientific, technical, and engineering communication
- Instructional and communication design
- Cognitive science and learning theory
- User experience, human-computer interaction, usability.