Madison Jones

Madison Jones, wearing a light colored button down shit, smiling against a white background.
  • Associate Professor
  • Department of Natural Resources Science
  • Email: madisonjones@uri.edu
  • Office Location: Roosevelt Hall, Room 329
  • Website

Biography

I am an associate professor of science communication with a joint appointment in the departments of Professional/Public Writing and Natural Resources Science at the University of Rhode Island where I am a Senior Fellow at the Coastal Institute, coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Science Writing and Rhetoric, and direct the DWELL Lab. In May 2020, I received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida, with a specialization in Rhetoric & Writing Studies, where I was awarded a Preeminence Fellowship and a Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Research

I research the rhetoric of science and technology (RST) through social and historical perspectives, teach courses on science writing and environmental justice, and practice community-engagement with science using location-based technologies (e.g.—augmented reality and digital maps) as well as apply creative and digital/visual approaches to science and environmental communication. In my monograph, Inventing Ecosystems: The Rhetoric of Science in an Ecological Age (Palgrave, forthcoming 2025), I examine the shared conceptual histories of ecosystems and rhetoric. My scholarly articles have appeared in Enculturation, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Kairos, and have been recognized by CCCC/NCTE’s 2020 Best Article on Philosophy or Theory of Technical or Scientific Communication, Honorable Mention for the 2022 ARSTM Article of the Year Award, and CCCC/NCTE’s 2022 Best Article on Pedagogy or Curriculum in Technical or Scientific Communication. I am co-editor of Rhetorical Ecologies (NCTE, 2024) and Writing the Environment in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: The Ecological Awareness of Early Scribes of Nature (Bloomsbury, 2015). Our collaborative work with DWELL intersects place-based writing and digital rhetoric to understand how locative media provide new possibilities for environmental advocacy and science storytelling. The lab has received support from a wide range of organizations, from the National Science Foundation to the National Endowment for the Humanities, to the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, to The National Institute of Food and Agriculture. For more information, visit the DWELL Lab website: https://web.uri.edu/dwell/

Education

Ph.D., Writing and Rhetoric, University of Florida, 2020
M.A., English, Auburn University, 2014
B.A., English, University of Montevallo, 2010

Selected Publications

Books

Investing Ecosystems:  The Rhetoric of Science in an Ecological Age. Palgrave, 2025 (in press).

Rhetorical Ecologies. Co-edited with Sidney I. Dobrin. NCTE, 2024.

Writing the Environment in Nineteenth-Century American Literature: The Ecological Awareness of Early Scribes of Nature. Co-edited with Steven Petersheim. Bloomsbury, 2015.

Recent Articles (selected)

  1. “North Woods Project:  Mobilizing Digital Field Methods and Art-Based Research for Science Communication and Environmental Advocacy.” Co-authored with Travess Smalley, AnnaFaith Jorgensen, Ally Cuomo, Ally Overbay, and Joseph Ahart. Kairos:  A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, vol. 30, iss. 1. (In Press), Forth. Fall 2025.
  2. “Sylvan Rhetoric in the Planes of Plato’s Phaedrus.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 44, iss. 1, 2024, 1-16, https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2024.2425483.
  3. “Augmenting for Accessible Environments: Layering Deep Mapping, Deep
    Accessibility, and Community Literacy.” Co-authored with Leah Heilig, Ally Overbay, and Taylor Roberts. Communication Design Quarterly, vol. 12, iss. 1,
    2024, pp. 33-43, https://doi.org/10.1145/3655727.3655731 8.
  4. “Tracking Memes in the Wild: Visual Rhetoric and Image Circulation in
    Environmental Communication.” Co-Authored with Aaron Beveridge, Hannah
    MacDonald, Abbey Greene, and Julian Garrison. Frontiers in Communication
    (Science & Environmental Communication), 2022, pp. 1-16,
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.883278.
  5. “A Counterhistory of Rhetorical Ecologies.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly,
    September 2021, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 336-352,
    https://doi.org/10.1080/02773945.2021.1947517 [Received Honorable Mention
    for ARSTM’s 2022 Article of the Year Award]
  6. “Deep Mapping for Environmental Communication Design.” Co-authored with
    Shannon Butts. Communication Design Quarterly, January 2021, vol. 9, iss. 1,
    pp. 4-19, https://doi.org/10.1145/3437000.3437001 . [Awarded CCCC/NCTE’s
    2022 Best Article on Pedagogy or Curriculum in Technical or Scientific
    Communication].

Courses

  • WRT 533: Graduate Writing in the Life Sciences
  • WRT 334: Science Writing
  • WRT 534 / NRS 530: Visualizing Environmental Advocacy
  • BES 521: Rhetorical Field Methods for Science