My research approach is inspired by David Blakesley’s interdisciplinary method, Greg Ulmer’s MyStory composition mapping, (for a detailed review of Ulmer’s MyStory technique, visit the Book Oblivion Reading Group led by a fellow Clemson cohort- Jessica Schad Manuel) and Cynthia Hayne’s, “the foremother of digital rhetorics,” rhetorical marriage of digital media and poetics.
Drawing from feminist rhetorical theorists like Jessica Enoch and Carol Mattingly, I examine how gender is expressed and contested through public embodiment—such as the choice to wear tutus or other performative gear during races. Michelle Smith’s approach of studying the rhetorics of gendered labor, particularly her historiographical research method for understanding the lived experience of gender across time, space, and place. Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity shapes my understanding of how running becomes a site of both conformity and subversion. Inspired by Sarah Hallenbeck’s work on the role of women’s rhetorical agency in the transformation of a male-dominated sport, I frame running itself as a rhetorical and material act—an embodied challenge hegemonic normative standards.
My scholarship also engages Doreen Massey’s theory of gendered space and Ufuk Ersoy’s narrative framework to theorize narrative architecture—the way movement through time and place constructs story, identity, and meaning. I use this to explore how women experience race courses, city streets, and natural terrains as gendered and storied spaces. I am incredibly proud of my work on the Narrative Architecture of the Chicago Marathon.
Central to my approach is Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, which guides my analysis of how gender, race, class, and sexuality shape access, experience, and representation within running culture.
I build on Cheryl Cooky’s work on gendered media representations of sport and critique of the erasure of women’s voices in both athletic and academic narratives. My research is further informed by Hoermann-Elliott’s study of embodied cognition and Haruki Murakami’s fusion of running and memoir, as I investigate how running becomes a mind-body practice for healing, identity formation, and personal liberation.
A core tenant of my research is based in embodiment and how running serves as a rhetorical device to help us make sense of, and process, trauma in the body. I expand Bessel van der Kolk’s seminal work on how trauma reshapes both the mind and body. I am particularly interested in the neuroscience of running and how running changes our brains through neurotransmitter systems.
Expanding upon Corporeal Feminism, examined by scholars such as Elizabeth Gross in Volatile Bodies, I draw connections between the running body and historical inequality in women’s sports primarily attributed to the notion that women’s bodies serve primarily a site of biological reproduction.
I center the lived experiences of trans and cis women runners, foregrounding running as a feminist rhetorical strategy—one that affirms agency, embodiment, and resistance through motion. This work creates space for voices often silenced in both sport and scholarship, building a radically inclusive framework where all women can be seen, heard, and empowered through movement.
No other scholar combines this depth of theoretical insight with personal, lived expertise. I don’t just study this—I live it. And I teach others how to run toward liberation.