Dr. Lauren Obermark

Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

Author of Engaging Museums: Rhetorical Education and Social Justice

Contact me at obermarkl@umsl.edu

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Ph.D. in English (Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy), Ohio State University
M.A. in English (Language and Literature), University of Missouri-Kansas City
B.S. in Secondary English Education,University of Missouri-Columbia

As a specialist in Rhetoric and Composition, I am interested in communication, broadly defined. That

communication may be written, oral, visual, or a combination of modes and media; it may take place among humans but is also inherent in objects or environments. This open and flexible understanding of communication defines how I study and perform rhetoric. 

I am the author of the book Engaging Museums: Rhetorical Education and Social Justice, forthcoming from Southern Illinois University Press in March of 2022. This book shares rhetorical case studies of national historical museums, focusing on the ways these sites shape civic engagement and offer new insights to scholars and teachers of rhetoric.

I have recently published articles on writing program administration, disability studies, public memory of difficult history, and public rhetoric in/about Ferguson, Missouri. I am also an editor and author for the digital collection entitled The Rhetoric of Participation, published  by Computers and Composition Digital Press in the spring of 2019.

At the heart of all my work is an ongoing investigation of how rhetoric informs 21st-century practices of citizenship, social justice, and pedagogy. My interests in civically engaged rhetoric—especially as it can be used to improve how people listen, speak, and write to (and about) one another—are the uniting thread across my academic roles of teaching, research, and service. As a teacher, scholar, and University citizen, I work to both use and theorize methods and models to move toward equitable and accessible engagement and participation. 

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{ Research and Teaching Interests }

• Contemporary Rhetorical Theory
• Disability Studies
• Public and Visual Rhetorics
• Museum and Memory Studies
• Composition Theory and Pedagogy
• Engagement and Participation

If you cannot access any of the material on my website, feel free to send me an email, and I can send you information in another format.