Rhetorical Theory, Rhetorics of Technology, Algorithmic Rhetorics, Materialist Rhetorics, Disability Studies, Data Surveillance and Ethics

Krista Kennedy is Associate Professor of Writing & Rhetoric and Director of Graduate Studies for the Composition & Cultural Rhetorics doctoral program. She is also a core faculty member in the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute at Syracuse University. During the 2020 – 21 academic year, she was NEH Distinguished Visiting Professor of Writing & Rhetoric at Colgate University. Her research focuses on the ways that humans work closely with technologies and the rhetorical implications of policies and laws that shape that work. She is also interested in the ways we construct our relationships with technologies, whether contemporary or historical. Her experience as a deaf academic informs her current project, which examines intersections of d/Deafness, artificial intelligence, and ethics of medical data collection.

Kennedy is the author of Textual Curation: Authorship, Agency, and Technology in Wikipedia and the Chambers’ Cyclopædia (University of South Carolina Press, 2016) and has published more than 25 essays in a variety of venues in the U.S., U.K., and France, including College English, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, Explorations in Media Ecology, as well as edited collections from Oxford University Press, Editions Honoré Champion, and Presses Universitaires Savoie Mont Blanc. A frequent speaker, she has delivered invited talks in Ireland and South Korea.

Since 2009, Kennedy has been a faculty member of the Syracuse University Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, & Composition. Her award-winning teaching has been recognized by each institution where she has taught. Most recently, she received a 2019 Excellence in Graduate Education Award from the SU Graduate School and a 2021 Torch Medal while at Colgate University.

She also publishes creative nonfiction essays and poetry as well as photography. Her photographic work has appeared in diverse digital and print publications including The Atlantic, The London Evening Standard, National Public Radio, Oxford University Press China, Simon & Schuster, W.W. Norton, McGraw Hill, and Mines ParisTech, among other venues.

Edited Volumes

Kennedy, Krista and Jenell Johnson. Special issue on Disability, In/Visibility, and Risk. Rhetoric Society Quarterly 50(3) (Summer 2020). 161-221.

Howard, Rebecca Moore and Krista Kennedy. Special Issue on Western Cultures of Intellectual Property. College English 75.5 (May 2013). 461-547.

Recent Articles and Chapters

Kennedy, Krista. “Being Ecological | Ecological Being.” Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature. Forthcoming Summer 2022.

Howard, Rebecca Moore and Krista Kennedy. “Designing Accessible Print and Digital Documents.” Writing Matters, 4th ed. McGraw Hill, 2021. 183-198.

Kennedy, Krista, Charlotte Tschider, and Noah Wilson. “Balancing the Halo: Data Surveillance and Algorithmic Opacity in Smart Hearing Aids.” Rhetoric of Health and Medicine 4.1 (2021). 33-74.

Tschider, Charlotte A. and Krista Kennedy. “Data Discrimination: The International Regulatory Impasse of AI-Enabled Devices.” Legal, Social, and Ethical Perspectives on Health and Technology. Eds. Motahareh Fathisalout-Bollon and Anna Berti Suman. Presses Universitaires Savoie Mont Blanc, 2020. 147-168.

Kennedy, Krista. “'I Forgot I’m Deaf!': Passing, Kairotic Space, and the Midcentury Cyborg Woman." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 50(3) (Summer 2020). 184-193.

Kennedy, Krista and Noah Wilson. “The Banality of Digital Aggression: Algorithmic Data Surveillance in Medical Wearables.” Digital Ethics: Rhetoric and Responsibility in Online Aggression, Hate Speech, and Harassment. Eds. Jessica Reyman and Erika Sparby. Routledge, 2019. 214-230.

Kennedy, Krista. “Pools, or, On Being Seen Deaf.” Tendon Magazine. Johns Hopkins Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine. 2019.

Tschider, Charlotte A. and Krista Kennedy. “Legal Issues in Cybernetics and Robotics.” The Law of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Machines.Ed. Theodore F. Claypoole. American Bar Association, 2019. 281-301.

Kennedy, Krista. “Designing for Human-Machine Collaboration: Smart Hearing Aids as Wearable Technologies.” Special issue on Communication Design of Wearable Technologies in Health and Medicine. Eds. Catherine Gouge and John Jones. Communication Design Quarterly 5(4) (Dec. 2017). 40-51.

Recent Interviews

Dr. Fernando Sánchez, RHM Assistant Editor, interviews Krista Kennedy, Noah Wilson, and Charlotte Tschider on their article, “Balancing the Halo: Data Surveillance Disclosure and Algorithmic Opacity in Smart Hearing Aids.” Rhetoric of Health and Medicine 4.1 (2021).

“Collisions in Patient Education: Surveillance, Medical Devices, and Communication.” With Noah Wilson. Interview with Liz Fraley. Room 42 Podcast. April 28, 2021. https://www.single-sourcing.com/events/collisions-in-patient-education-surveillance-medical-devices-and-communication/

“Autonomous Systems and People with Disabilities.” Interview with Diane Weiner. Episode 89: Autonomous Systems and People with Disabilities. ADALive! Podcast, Southeast ADA Center. Jan. 6, 2021. https://www.adalive.org/episode89