Ph.D. Students
Nadia Ahmadi is a Ph.D. student in rhetoric and writing at Virginia Tech, where she works as a graduate research assistant. Her research focuses on health communication, technical communication, and public health.
She earned an M.S. in technical communication from Missouri University of Science and Technology, where she also worked as a graduate teaching Assistant, teaching technical writing, and as a Writing Consultant at the Writing and Communication Center. Her master's thesis, “Evaluating Plain Language in Public Health Communication,” explored the readability and clarity of public health documents.
Since 2024, Nadia has volunteered as a Multilingual Communicator with Tarjimly, providing translation and interpretation in medical settings. This experience has strengthened her interest in language access, health equity, and ethical communication. She has also published research on academic integrity and writing practices. In her free time, Nadia enjoys cooking, exercising, and playing video games.
Md Sayed Ali
Md Sayed Ali is a passionate rhetorician with a deep interest in the intersections of rhetoric, culture, and technology. He completed his B.A. and M.A. in English from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh. After that, he spent a couple of years teaching English at a school in Bangladesh. Later, he joined the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for a second M.A. in English, this time concentrating on rhetoric and composition. His study of rhetorical learning there inspired him to pursue a Ph.D. in rhetoric and writing, which he is now undertaking at Virginia Tech.
His research interests include digital and cultural rhetoric, technical writing and communication, UX and human-centered design, and the role of digital media in civic engagement. He enjoys spending time on community service, watching art films, and playing soccer and cricket for fun. He also loves connecting with nature, going for hikes, and enjoying the beauty around him.
Samuel Adjei Amoabeng
Samuel Adjei Amoabeng is a doctoral student in the rhetoric and writing program and a graduate teaching assistant in the University Writing Program. He earned an M.A. in composition and rhetoric from Miami University, Ohio, where he taught first-year composition as instructor of record. He holds a B.A. in English dducation from the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, and previously taught high school English at Hope College in Ghana before beginning his graduate career.
His current research interest focuses on international multilingual writers, drawing on transnational writing theory and intercultural rhetoric. Situated broadly within New Literacy Studies (NLS), his work examines how these writers’ social and cultural experiences shape their writing in U.S. academic contexts and how they navigate new discursive and rhetorical expectations. His broader research interests include digital rhetoric, and the intersections of language, technology, culture, and writing.
Outside of his academic work, Samuel enjoys exploring creative software and digital tools, listening to Afrobeats and podcasts, and making digital arts.
Yemi Awotayo
Olayemi Awotayo is from Lagos, Nigeria. His research interests are in displacement and migration narratives, public rhetorics, and intercultural communication. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English, from the University of Lagos, and a master’s degree in Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture from Michigan Technological University. He has taught courses in First-year Writing, Public Speaking, and currently teaches Technical Writing while continuing his doctorate in Rhetoric and Writing.
Megan Bronson
Megan Bronson is a PhD student in the Rhetoric and Writing program.
Casey Cockrum
Casey Cockrum is a doctoral student pursuing her degree in Rhetoric and Writing hailing from Northeast, Tennessee. Her work primarily focuses on political rhetoric and fandoms, media literacy, and pop culture with concentrations in disability studies, affect theory, and sociopolitical theory. Alongside these interests, Casey also explores the rhetorical functions of horror literature, films, and video games to investigate the role of fear and marginalized peoples in modern society. In her down time, Casey enjoys spending time with her 5 dogs and husband, playing guitar, supporting the Tennessee Volunteers, and arguing with people on TV from the comfort of her couch.
Sarah Cozort
Sarah Cozort is in her fourth year of the PhD in rhetoric and writing studies and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Memphis. Her primary research interests include history and theory of rhetoric and writing, cultural and queer rhetoric(s), and legal language (with a focus on the relationship between digital culture and the law). The working title of her dissertation is Rhetoric of Sex Work: Current Issues in Language, Law, and Policy, and her article, “Strict Fathers Who Tweet: Propaganda in the Age of Post-Truth,” is forthcoming in a collection of perspectives on post-truth in the field. She is the current assistant editor of the Journal of Forensic Vocational Analysis, as well as the incoming assistant editor of The Minnesota Review. Her creative work and cultural criticism have appeared in LARB, The Academy of American Poets (online), Maggot Brain (a Third Man Records quarterly), and Barely South, among other venues.
Shuvro Das
Shuvro Das is a PhD student from Manikganj, Bangladesh. He has completed his B.A. in English Literature and Language from Jahangirnagar University and M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition from Washington State University. His research interests include Immigration Rhetoric, Visa Policies, Cultural Rhetoric, Non-Western Rhetoric, Writing Program Administration, and Technical Communication. He has presented his work in RSA Computers and Writing, ATTW, CCCC, and PAMLA conferences. He believes is the healing power of words and storytelling. He loves cats and adores dogs. He likes mountains AND beaches. He is super close to his mother and sister. He is a big fan of Indian Classical Music. He dreams of owning a beach house someday.
Esosa Esezobor
Esosa Esezobor is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric and Writing program. She completed her undergraduate degree in linguistics, with a major in Chinese studies, at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
In 2024, Esosa earned her M.A. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication from New Mexico State University, where she worked as a graduate teaching assistant and University Writing Center coordinator. As a coordinator, she led ongoing education workshops for writing center tutors and created digital content for the Center’s social media platforms, including videos and posters introducing writing center staff, resources, and services available to students.
Her master’s essay, “Àló as a Rhetorical Methodology,” examined a Yorùbá storytelling tradition as a rhetorical framework for studying the 2020 #EndSARS protests in Nigeria. Through this work, she explored how protest slogans, tweets, hashtags, images, and communal witnessing function as forms of collective memory, cultural continuity, and resistance against state violence. She has presented her research work at the Rhetoric Society of America Conference and Computers and Writing.
Her other research interests include digital cultural rhetorics, feminist rhetorics, and examining automated closed captioning practices in popular media. She is especially interested in culturally grounded approaches to rhetoric and writing that recognize storytelling, multilingualism, embodiment, and communal knowledge-making as important sites of rhetorical theory and pedagogy. Outside of her academics, Esosa finds filming creative makeup tutorials, fashion, music, and baking incredibly therapeutic.
Patrick Greene
Patrick (he/him) is a doctoral candidate and graduate teaching assistant. Before joining academia, he worked as a nuclear electronics technician in the United States Navy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in applied linguistics from Old Dominion University. His research interests include public and institutional discourse, rhetorics of disability, writing center administration, and writing across the curriculum. Outside of research, he enjoys tabletop gaming, watching video essays about TV shows he doesn’t watch, and spending time with family and pets.
Emilie Helmbold
Emilie Helmbold grew up in Northern Michigan along the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. In 2020, she graduated with her B.A. in political science, drama, and creative writing from the University of Michigan with distinction and honors. She earned her Master of Fine Arts from Western Michigan University with a focus in fiction writing in the spring of 2025. Her writing can be found in several publications, including Glassworks and the Bear River Review. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Writing from Virginia Tech where she intends to research the connections between creative writing pedagogy and composition in the first-year writing classroom.
John Hendrix
John Hendrix is a rhetorician, semiotician, syntax-adjuster, and compositeur from Gloucester, Virginia. He holds a BA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MA in English from East Carolina University.
Seyda Karagulle
Seyda (she/her) is an international student, teacher, and curious explorer who moved quite a bit around the world, until she finally settled in Blacksburg with her spouse shortly before a global pandemic. She earned her MA in English from Virginia Tech and was drawn to pursue her PhD studies there, driven by her fondness for both VT and Blacksburg. In her work, she is interested in language and writing pedagogies, ELL literacy, and intercultural communication. In life, she is particularly interested in food and finds immense joy in exploring new places to eat and experimenting with new recipes.
Gideon Kwawukumey
Gideon Kwawukumey is a broadcast journalist and doctoral student of rhetoric and writing in the Department of English at Virginia Tech. He is an emerging rhetorical scholar with a research interest in linguistic justice in First-Year Writing, evaluating linguistic justice in technical communication, translingual rhetoric, the intersection of rhetoric and language policy, and sports communication. In 2023, he completed his masters in English from Illinois State University, where he worked on research that demonstrates a disconnect between multilingual ideologies embraced in NALAP policy and the monolingual focus of Golden English. Recognized for his outstanding research and First-Year Writing instruction, he received the prestigious Excellence in TESOL Award (2022), Glenn Grever Award for Outstanding Teaching (2023), and Sigma Tau Delta honor (2021) from the Department of English, ISU. He is currently a Juneteenth Scholar who collaborates on research to better understand the recruitment process and retention of multi-marginalized doctoral students in research-intensive rhetoric, writing, and technical communication institutions in the United States. Kwawukumey hopes to expand knowledge production in the field of rhetoric, writing, and technical communication to include multi-marginalized epistemologies and underdeveloped perspectives.
Katie Long
Katie Long: avid gamer, swiftie, reader, writer, squishmallow collector, cat lover, and gel pen/planner aficionado. Born and raised in Southern OK, Katie loves the rain and stormy weather, as she believes it’s the best time to hunker down with a good book and that day’s drink of choice (usually a vanilla chai tea latte).
Clara Monson
Clara Monson (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric and Writing program at Virginia Tech from West Virginia. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Shepherd University (2024), as well as a Master of Arts in English Literature from West Virginia University (2026) where she taught first-year composition courses for two semesters. Her research prioritizes an interdisciplinary, community-focused approach to communication of preemptive risk and emergency information, specifically in rural communities dealing with a higher rate of natural disasters. She hopes to blend creative techniques—such as mini zines and other forms of graphic narratives—current pedagogical methods, and community responses to recent disasters to create more accessible means of risk communication for small communities in rural West Virginia.
Beyond academia, Clara enjoys baking a growing variety of sweet treats, painting, singing, and spending time with her cat, Biscuit. She also has a passion for literary studies and loves to engage in critical conversations about “a/the canon" and education!
Sahajiya Nath
Sahajiya Nath is a Bengali scholar, currently pursuing her doctoral studies in the Rhetoric and Writing program. With diverse academic training in comparative literature, digital humanities, and technical communication, she thinks and writes about immigration rhetoric, transnational identities, human rights, social justice, accessibility, and storytelling. She believes in the Oxford comma.
Edith Ogbodo
Edith Ogbodo is a doctoral student in the rhetoric and writing program at Virginia Tech. She earned her master of science in rhetoric, theory, and culture from Michigan Technological University and her bachelor of arts in theatre and film arts from the University of Jos, Nigeria. Her research interests include technoculture, digital rhetoric and new media, human-machine communication, with additional interest in health communication, and technical communication. Before joining Virginia Tech, Edith taught first-year writing as a graduate teaching instructor at Michigan Technological University. Prior to that, she spent five years as a communications team lead at Interra Networks in Abuja, Nigeria, where she led public health communication campaigns for national agencies and supported digital health projects.
Temitope Ojedele
Temitope Ojedele-Adejumo is a PhD student in the Rhetoric and Writing program. She is from Abeokuta, Ogun State, a south-west region of Nigeria, but grew up and schooled to her master's level in Lagos, Nigeria.
Prior to joining the RW PhD program at Virginia Tech, Temitope had worked as a PR executive at BBB Media, Lagos, where she created PR content for prestigious public brands. Her journey in academia kicked off in 2018, when her alma mater, the University of Lagos, offered to retain her as an assistant lecturer in the Department of English as the best graduating student of her set.
Although she started off as a literary scholar and is a published creative writer, Temitope's research interests have evolved as she continues her PhD journey in the field of rhetoric. Her research interests include transnational rhetorics, diasporic African rhetoric, non-western rhetorical traditions, user-centered communication design, and feminist rhetorics. Temitope’s scholarly work explores the complex dynamics of identity, culture, and power in global communication practices, focusing on the experiences and perspectives of African diaspora communities. She aims to contribute to the development of inclusive and equitable approaches to rhetoric and writing pedagogy that recognize and value diverse ways of knowing and communicating through her teaching and research.
Tori Palmore
Tori Palmore is a doctoral student from rural Kentucky. She is interested in political, environmental, and media rhetoric, specifically for and to marginalized communities. She obtained her master's degree from Western Kentucky University, where she taught literature, research, and composition for two years. She lives with her wife, three pets, and one hundred plants. She's seeking advice on how to keep Calla lilies alive.
Douglas Pitt
Douglas Pitt is a first year Ph.D. student who grew up in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. They received their B.A. in English from Allegheny College, and their M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Chapman University. They are an interdisciplinary scholar with evolving research and writing interests, but are focused on queer theory, environmental humanities, and digital rhetorics.
Abigail Robinson
Abigail L. Robinson is from High Point, North Carolina. She holds an MA in English with a focus in Rhetoric and Composition from North Carolina State University. Her writing and research focuses on program administration, multimodality, and digital literacy.
Molly Ryan
Molly Ryan (she/her) graduated from Virginia Tech with her Masters in English in 2022. She is also a 2017 summa cum laude dual- concentration graduate of the English department. Broadly, Molly’s research investigates the theory and practice of composition pedagogies, the implementation of student-centered teaching across academic disciplines, and the formation of mentorship relationships within the field. Specifically, Molly explores the development of cross-campus pedagogical training programs, queer and empathy-forward practices in first-year writing, and the significance of pedagogy programming in the context of higher education policy. Molly was a cohort member of the 2023 Summer Writing Across the Curriculum Faculty Summer Institute, was selected and inducted as a Fellow in VTGrATE in 2023, and is a student representative in the Graduate School Honor Court. In the department, she is President of the English Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) and Chair of Rhetoric Club. Molly won the Hoffman Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching in 2023 and the Barbara Ellen Smith Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in 2022.
Julia Unger
Julia Unger grew up in Amherst, New Hampshire with four siblings and three cats. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English and Writing/Rhetoric in 2020 and her Master’s degree in English in 2023 from the University of Rhode Island. She is completing her PhD in Rhetoric at Virginia Tech, and her research focuses include digital rhetorics, feminist rhetorics, religious rhetorics, queer theory, and performance theory. In her spare time, she likes to watch horror movies, lift weights, hike on the beautiful NRV trails, and bake for her loved ones.