Laura Younger

Dr. Laura Younger received her Ph.D. in 20th-Century American Literature from The Ohio State University.  Her dissertation, entitled "Rhetorical Strategies of Caretaking in HIV/AIDS Literature," examines ways in which representations of illness impact an ethics of care within a narrative.

Examinations of representational and rhetorical strategies form the groundwork of much of Laura's classroom inquiry.  In her writing and literature classrooms, she brings together her own studies in literature, philosophy, and rhetoric to examine ways in which we can make language work to break down limiting structures:  structures of normalization, of identity, of gender, and so forth.  The implications of such inquiry are both challenging (if we are made of our narratives, who, then, are we?) and reassuring (we always have a chance to change the narratives we tell about ourselves).

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