性视界传媒

Heidi Y. Lawrence

Portrait of Heidi Lawrence
Titles and Organizations

Associate Professor

Contact Information

Email: hlawren2@gmu.edu
Campus: Fairfax
Office: Horizon Hall 4143

Biography

Heidi Y. Lawrence teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on professional writing and rhetoric. Her research focuses on the rhetorics of medical and scientific controversies, specifically public debates about vaccinations, campus sexual assault, and opioids. She studies the role that professional communication produced by physicians, health officials, and researchers plays in shaping public debate and parental beliefs about vaccines.

Her work has appeared in the journal听Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Critical Public Health,听Journal of the Medical Humanities, the听Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, and听the听Journal of Technical Writing and Communication.听Her book on vaccine controversy,听Vaccine Rhetorics, will be available from The Ohio State University Press in Spring 2020.

She teaches courses in proposal writing, research methods, technical and professional writing. She is also the faculty advisor for the 性视界传媒 Student Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC).

Fall 2020:听Current and prospective students can schedule an advising appointment with me by following this link:听

Selected Publications

Monograph

Lawrence, Heidi Yoston.听Vaccine Rhetorics. The Ohio State University Press. In press, available Spring 2020.

Public Scholarship

"Vaccine Dissent and the Challenges of Solidarity in a Pandemic"听Newsweek, co-authored with Bernice L. Hausman:听

"This Doctor is Suggesting COVID-19 Lockdowns are a Conspiracy to Take Away Your Freedom" (quoted in)听Buzzfeed, by Anne Helen Petersen:听

Articles

Hausman, Bernice,听Heidi Y. Lawrence,听Susan Marmagas, Clare Dannenberg, and Lauren Fortenbery. 鈥淗1N1 Vaccination and Health Beliefs in a Rural Community in the Southeastern United States: Lessons Learned.鈥澨Critical Public Health. Accepted August 2018.

Lawrence, Heidi Y.鈥淲hen Patients Question Vaccines: Considering Vaccine Communication through a Material Rhetorical Approach.鈥澨Rhetoric of Health and Medicine,听1.1-2 (2018): 161-178.

Lawrence, Heidi Y.,Rachael Graham Lussos, and Jessica Clark. 鈥淭he Rhetoric of Proposal Writing: Pedagogy, Research, and Real-world Practice.鈥澨Journal of Technical Writing and Communication.听First Published December 13, 2017. 1-18.

Lawrence, Heidi Y.鈥淔ear of the Irreparable: Narratives in Vaccination Rhetoric.鈥澨Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics听6.3 (Winter 2016): 205-209.

Scott, Jennifer Bracken, Kristin Kondrlik,听Heidi Y. Lawrence,Susan Popham, and Candice Welhausen. 鈥淩hetoric, Ebola, and Vaccination: A Conversation Among Scholars.鈥澨POROI: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Rhetorical Analysis and Invention11.2 (Dec. 2015): 1-26.

Lawrence, Heidi Y.鈥淗ealthy Bodies, Toxic Medicines: Vaccination Beliefs and the Rhetorics of Health, Illness, and the Body.鈥澨Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.听87.4 (December 2014): 423-437.

Lawrence, Heidi Y.,Bernice L. Hausman, and Clare J. Dannenberg. 鈥淩eframing Medicine鈥檚 Publics: The Local as a Public of Vaccine Refusal.鈥澨Journal of the Medical Humanities35.2 (June 2014): 111-129.

Dannenberg, Clare J., Bernice L. Hausman,听Heidi Y. Lawrence,听and Katrina M. Powell. 鈥淭he Moral Appeal of Environmental Discourses: The Implication of Ethical Rhetorics.鈥澨Environmental Communication6.2 (Summer 2012): 212-232. DOI: 10.1080/175242032.2012.668856.

Reviews

Lawrence, Heidi Y.听Review of听The Antivaccine Heresy:听Jacobson v. Massachusetts听and the Troubled History of Contemporary Vaccination in the United States. Nursing History Review (NHR). 26.1 (2018).

Lawrence, Heidi Y. Review of听Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception.听Journal of Business and Technical Communication29.4 (October 2015): 490-495.

Grants and Fellowships

鈥淐ommunication Center Impacts: A Proof of Concept for Enhancing Skills and Learning.鈥 Melissa Broeckelman-Post and听Heidi Lawrence.听Faculty Research and Development Award. Submitted November 2018. Funded December 2018. $15,000.听

鈥淩hetoric of Quantification in the Context of Chronic Pain.鈥澨Heidi Lawrence听and Rachael Graham Lussos. National Science Foundation (NSF) Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DRIG). Submitted August 3, 2018. Funded February 22, 2019. $5,059.

鈥淓xpanding the Professional Writing Curriculum to Enhance Global and Civic Engagement.鈥 With Doug Eyman and Isidore Dorpenyo. 性视界传媒 (GMU) Curriculum Impact Grant (CIG) Submitted June 1, 2018. Funded, June 19, 2018, $30,000.

鈥淰irginia Colloquium on the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (VCRHM).鈥 With Bernice Hausman, Kelly Pender, Michael Klein, Lori Beth De Hertogh, and Cathryn Molloy. 4-VA. Submitted October 17, 2017. Funded December 12, 2017, $16,500.

鈥淐ommunity-Engaged Health Research Program.鈥 With Ali Weinstein, Emily Ihara, Cathy Tompkins, and Rebecca Vargas-Jackson. GMU CIG. Submitted September 25, 2017. Funded December 2017, $35,000.

鈥淎 Multidisciplinary Approach to Mitigating Campus Sexual Assault.鈥 With Bonnie Stabile, Nance Lucas, Angela Hattery, Anthony Stefanidis, Siona Listokin-Smith, Patricia Maulden, Linn Jorgenson, Kate Destler, and Jessica Terman. Provost鈥檚 Multidisciplinary Initiative Grant Program. May-June 2015. Funded July 2015, $25,000.

Courses Taught

English 388, Professional and Technical Writing

English 501, Introduction to Professional Writing and Rhetoric

English 502, Research Methods in Professional Writing and Rhetoric

English 489/509: Proposal Writing and Development

English 488/689: Advanced Proposal Writing and Development

English 613: Technical Communication

English 824: Medicine, Health, and Technical Communication

Education

PhD, Rhetoric and Writing, Virginia Tech, 2013.

MA, English (Professional Writing and Rhetoric concentration), 性视界传媒, 2007

BA, English, Mary Washington College, 2002

Recent Presentations

"Logic of Care as a Framework for Accountability in Technical Communication.鈥 20th Annual Conference, Association for Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW). Pittsburgh, PA. March 2019.

鈥淢aking Connections, Expanding Mentoring: Creating High-Impact Practices in Mentorship for Graduate Students.鈥 Innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference. Fairfax, VA. September 2018.

鈥淎nalyzing Complex Public Problems: Rhetoric in the Case of Campus Sexual Assault.鈥 2018 Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA). Minneapolis, MN. May 2018

鈥淰accination, Persuasiveness, and Rhetorical Theory: Beyond the Deficit Model.鈥 2016 Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA). Atlanta, GA. May 29, 2016.

鈥淢edicolegal Rhetorics: Medicine as Arbitrator in Competing Discourses about Disease and Disability.鈥 2016 Conference of the RSA. Atlanta, GA. May 27, 2016

鈥淪kepticism and Doubt in Outbreak: A Study of Community Perspectives on Disease, Health, and Medicine following Pertussis.鈥 Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine (ARSTM) Preconference. Atlanta, GA. May 26, 2016.

鈥淩hetorical Analysis of Media Coverage of Campus Sexual Assault: Implications for Policy.鈥 Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual Conference. April 7, 2016.

鈥淯nderstanding Voluntary Nonvaccination: Qualitative Approaches to Research.鈥 American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) 2015 Conference. Houston, TX. October 24, 2015.

鈥'I鈥檓 Not a Coincidence:' Reflective Persuasiveness and the Before-and-After Trope in Vaccine Narratives.鈥 American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) 2014 Conference. San Diego, CA. October 16, 2014.

鈥淓nacting Health through Illness: Infant Immune Systems as Borderland Bodies.鈥 2014 Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA). San Antonio, TX. May 22-26, 2014.

鈥淧rofessional Constraints and Exigencies: How Doctors do Disease through Vaccination.鈥 Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology (ARST) Preconference. Washington, D.C. November 20, 2013.听

In the Media

Lawrence, Heidi Y. and Cathryn Molloy. 鈥淎ssistant Editors鈥 Interview with Dr. Heidi Lawrence of 性视界传媒.鈥 Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Podcast, 27 February 2018.听

Anthony, Libby, Heidi Y. Lawrence, and Amy Reed. 鈥淲hat are you Working on Today?鈥: A Model for Remote Coworking.鈥澨The Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 December 2017.听

Gross, Rachel. (Media Interview)听听The Undark听January 24, 2017.听

Gross, Rachel. (Media Interview)听Slate.com听October 2, 2015.

Dissertations Supervised

Norma Coto,听听(2021)

Elizabeth Ferguson,听听(2019)

Lourdes Fernandez,听听(2019)

Rachael Graham Lussos,听听(2019)