Yuan Zhao, PhD Student at University of Louisville

My projects and presentations cover areas of the history of rhetoric, assessment, accessibility, writing center studies, international students, UX design, and reading.

Published Work

  • Zhao, Yuan. (2025). Review of Bas de Boer’s How Scientific Instruments Speak: Postphenomenology and Technological Mediations in Neuroscientific Practice (Lanham MD: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021). Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation. 40(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/Prometheus.40.2.0110

Works in Print and Under Review (by Oct 2026)

  • Zhao, Yuan. “Typeface in TOEFL Reading Section, University Admission Decisions, and Epistemic Injustice.” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy (14,821 words, under review).
  • Zhao, Yuan. “A Student Leader’s Positionality: Local Justice with International Students.” Dangerous Others of Writing Studies, edited by Lisa Mastrangelo and Cheri Lemieux Spiegel, Peter Lang, 2027 (5,722 words, in press, expected in 2027).

National Conference Presentations

  • “Public Attention to Make Sense of State Dignity and Civic Indignity,” part of panel “Authoritarian (In)Dignity Tropes,” with Ryan Skinnell, Mary McCoy, Megu Itoh, Elina Nikolskaya, and Sharon Yam, 22nd Biennial Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA), Portland, Oregon, USA, May 21-24, 2026.
  • “Inaccessible Accessibility Principles: ETS’s Performative Allyship,” part of roundtable “With Liberty and Justice for All: Multi- and Trans- Linguistic Advocacy and Activism” with Second Language Writing Standing Group of the CCCC (with Jingjing Xing, Ghada Gerwash, Shawna Shapiro, Qianqian Zhang-Wu, Shao-wei Huang, Zhaozhe Wang, Brooke Schreiber, Islam Farag, and Hidy Basta), 2026 Conference on College Composition & Communication (CCCC) Annual Convention, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, March 4-7, 2026. (URL to my presentation webpage)
  • “Accessible Writing Center,” part of panel “‘There Isn’t Even a Table to Write On!’: Writing Centers Fostering Cultures of Writing in STEM,” with Timothy Johnson and Annmarie Steffes, 2026 Conference on College Composition & Communication (CCCC) Annual Convention, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, March 4-7, 2026.
  • “Negotiating Dissensus: Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Technical and Professional Communication and Computer Science,” 2025 Conference on College Composition & Communication (CCCC) Annual Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, April 9-12, 2025.
  • “Burke’s Figures and Reality after de Man’s Deconstruction,” the 24th Biennial Conference of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (ISHR). University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, July 23-26, 2024.
  • “Typeface in TOEFL Reading Section and Epistemic Injustice in University Admission Decisions,” Building Community and Coalitions through Liberatory Pedagogies in Technical Communication, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) 2024 Conference, virtual meeting, June 10-12, 2024.
  • “Feminist Reading on Frame Narrative in Frankenstein: Masculine/Feminine Frames, and Feminine Vitality,” Persuasions: The Rhetoric of Romanticism. The International Conference on Romanticism. University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, October 2022.