Melissa Guadrón, PhD
Assistant Professor
Office
Location
HU 319
Hours
In office (HU 319) on Wednesdays from 11:00am to 2:00pm.
About
Pronunciation: muh-LISS-ah gwa-DRONE
Melissa Guadrón works in the fields of rhetoric, technical and professional communication (TPC), and disability studies. She studies how humans navigate uncertain situations, (especially at the cross-sections of health and technology, and that require collaboration across differences and expertise). She takes a mixed-methods approach (qualitative & quantitative) to these studies, often conducting site-based, real-time, human-subjects research.
Recent topics of research include: how interprofessional healthcare students are trained to respond to unpredictability in acute care simulations; how social workers provide patient-centered care while navigating issues of hierarchy at a free clinic; how disabled graduate students navigate issues of rhetoricity when reporting ableism; how health insurance companies use hostile algorithms to repeatedly deny coverage while promising care; and how undergraduate service-learning students build their situational, embodied rhetorical awareness and ingenuity through narrative re-telling.
As an instructor, Guadrón has taught a range of courses, including first- and second-year writing, rhetorical theory, disability studies, research methods, and community-engaged writing. Her teaching foregrounds experiential learning and praxis, emphasizing the importance of not just studying, but enacting the course’s theories, skills, and lessons.
Her research has been published in Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Written Communication, and Rhetoric of Health and Medicine. Additionally, she serves as the treasurer of the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Society.
Research Interests
- Rhetorical Theory & Research Methods
- Technical and Professional Communication
- Writing Studies and Composition
- Disability Studies
- Digital Media
- Narrative Theory