PhD, North Carolina State University
MA (Co-op), University of Waterloo
BA (Hons), University of Waterloo
Extension: 49135
Email: ashley.mehlenbacher@uwaterloo.ca
Biography
Professor Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher received her BA in Literature and Rhetoric and MA in Rhetoric and Communication Design from the University of Waterloo, and a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, under the supervision of Carolyn R. Miller. She is the author of On Expertise: Cultivating Character, Goodwill, and Practical Wisdom (Penn State University Press, 2022) and Science Communication Online (The Ohio State University Press, 2019). She is also co-author, with Christopher Thaiss, of Writing Science in the Twenty-First Century (Broadview Press, 2025), and co-editor, with Carolyn R. Miller, of Emerging Genres in New Media Environments (Palgrave, 2017).
Selected Publications
Mehlenbacher, A. R. (accepted). Metaphorology and the Rhetoric of Figures and Tropes. In D. M. Gross, S. Mailloux, & L. Mao (Eds.), Cambridge History of Rhetoric, Volume 5: Modern Rhetoric after 1900. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Mehlenbacher, A. R. (2024). On Memory and Figural Thought. Rhetor: Journal of the Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric/Société Canadienne pour l’Étude de la Rhétorique 9, 65–87.
Mehlenbacher, A. R. (2023). Proleptic Suite. In J. Fahnestock & R. A. Harris (Eds.), Routledge Handbook on Language and Persuasion. (pp. 278–292). New York, NY: Routledge.
Mehlenbacher, A. R., & Harris, R. A. (2017). A Figurative Mind: Gertrude Buck’s The Metaphor as a Nexus in Cognitive Metaphor Theory. Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric, 35(1), 75–109.
Selected Fellowships & Awards
2026-2031 Canada Research Chair Tier 2 SSHRC
2024 Arts Award for Excellence in Research & University of Waterloo's Faculty of Arts
2024 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles 2023—Psychology for On Expertise (Penn State UP)
2023, 2020, and 2017 Outstanding Performance Award from the University of Waterloo
2021-2026 Canada Research Chair Tier 2 SSHRC
2021-2023 Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
2020-2021 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Science Communication Skills Grant
2020-2023 Robert Harding & Lois Claxton Humanities and Social Sciences grant
2020 Fellows’ Early Career Award from the Rhetoric Society of America
2018-2023 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant
2018 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media program at North Carolina State University
2017-2023 Early Researcher Award (ERA) from the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science
Current Research
Professor Mehlenbacher is researching rhetorical strategies for describing complex transformations brought about by modernity in a project co-developed with Professor Brad Mehlenbacher entitled “Words for the Metamorphosis.”
Areas of Graduate Supervision
- History and theory of rhetoric