Multimodal Rhetoric, Digital Writing (DHSI 2026)

Description

A longstanding relationship exists between the digital humanities and writing studies as evidenced by journals like Kairos and Computers and Composition Online; however, in practice, the multi-faceted and mutually influential relationship between digital technology, rhetorical theory, and interdisciplinary writing practices is often underestimated. By centrally orienting this relationship, our course will explore multimodal writing practices, theories, and pedagogy. We consider how rhetorical aims, digital platforms, and disciplinary conventions might work together to generate complex, unconventional ways of writing and opportunities for teaching. Participants will engage in multimodal composing across digital and analog environments, including open-access platforms like Twine and Audacity. We will also re-purpose everyday materials and software to reconsider rhetorical principles, such as invention and arrangement. Adopting an interdisciplinary writing studies lens, we will investigate questions like:

• How do we persuade and engage differently in digital and multimodal spaces?
• How do we understand what it means to be an author and a reader in different formats or media?
• How can we adopt co-creation and collaboration as frameworks for inclusive writing practices in digital spaces?

This course will help faculty, graduate students, librarians, and instructional technologists design assignments and activities for humanities and interdisciplinary courses that include writing. Participants will collaborate on making activities, crafting and scaffolding assignments, identifying methods for assessment, and discussing the relationship between digital making tools, rhetorical practices, and writing pedagogy. At the end of the week, participants will have a strong understanding of ways to incorporate digital writing approaches and tools into their teaching and scholarly communication.

This course includes hands-on experiences, seminar discussion, and lecture and has no prerequisites.

Instructor(s)

Denna Iammarino teaches literature and writing at Case Western Reserve University. Her research combines early modern literature, multimodality, digital rhetoric, and writing studies to consider how the intersections of material culture and rhetoric can shape textual meaning and readerly engagement. More specifically, her work merges 16th-century literature and book history with contemporary issues of digital pedagogy and publishing to consider how changes in communication technology (like the invention of the printing press or the digital turn) impacts what it means to be an author, a text, and a reader. In addition to articles and reviews in several journals and edited collections, she is also co-editor of and a contributor to the critical collection entitled John Derricke’s The Image of Ireland, with a Discoverie of Woodkarne: Essays on Text and Contexts (Manchester UP, 2021) as well as a co-creator of a digital edition of the same work.

Kristine Kelly teaches in the Writing Program at Case Western Reserve University. Her classes, which include “Digital Literature,” “Interactive Storytelling,” and “Writing across Media” encourage students to develop as thinkers, writers, and makers in diverse rhetorical contexts. Kristine’s research and scholarship focus on digital literary studies and post-colonial and contemporary Anglophone literature and cultures, especially related to travel and mobility. Her work, published in forums like ARIEL, Paradoxa (Small Screen Fictions issue), and the recent collection The Ruptured Commons, explores how individuals forge paths, grounded and digital, in global, networked spaces.

Click here for an example of previous syllabus and course material (2025)