Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies
Education
- Ph.D., Communication, University of Pittsburgh
- M.A., Communication, University of Wyoming
- B.A., Communication Studies, James Madison University
Biography
Dr. Haynal’s interdisciplinary scholarship investigates what the study and practice of rhetoric teaches us about ethical and inclusive worldmaking. Areas of her research include critical pedagogy and praxis; environmental communication and the rhetoric of place, space, and civic life; and rhetoric and ethics in science, technology, and the environment. Her work has been published in a variety of edited collections and academic journals, including Environmental Communication, the Journal of General Education, American Behavioral Scientist, and Frontiers in Communication.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, where she conducted archival research, textual analysis, and participatory critical rhetorical fieldwork for her dissertation, “Parks and Civic Life: Rhetoric of Pittsburgh’s Parks System,” to examine how parks are rhetorically figured in, with, and through civic planning initiatives. Her research demonstrates how parks are rhetorically employed to shape public ideas around topics like citizenship, progress and preservation, public space, and urban identity from the late nineteenth through early twenty-first centuries.
Dr. Haynal then went on to complete a position as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Maine. In this position, she supported research on how communication shapes transdisciplinary collaborations on the Maine-eDNA Project, which is a Track-1 Grant that aims to support research, education, and outreach surrounding our understanding of sustainability of Maine’s coastal ecosystems via environmental DNA.
Before coming to UMW, she taught a variety of classes at Randolph-Macon College. One especially exciting class she developed was Parks and Civic Life, which invited students to partner with the town of Ashland, VA’s Parks and Recreation Director to create engaged scholarship and service projects that bridged connections between the college and broader community through a focus on the town’s parks.
