I am an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Virginia. I also serve as the Director of the Writing and Rhetoric Program. My primary research and teaching interests conspiracy theory rhetoric, propaganda & disinformation, visual rhetoric, and the history of rhetoric.
My research seeks to understand how people come to see the world according to the frameworks provided by their disciplinary, professional, political, and cultural communities. Specifically, I examine the role rhetorical discourses, visual media, and immersive experiences play in processes of training, socialization, and identity-formation. To understand this, my work draws on theories of sense-making (perception, imagination, persuasion, and affect) from rhetorical theory and cognitive science. Using ethnographic, rhetorical, and historical research methods, I study mostly visual objects, digital media, educational settings, and historical texts and objects.
My ethnographic monograph, Rhetoric in the Flesh: Trained Vision, Technical Expertise, and the Gross Anatomy Lab, examines how the discourses, multimodal displays, embodied practices, and actual human bodies of the cadaver lab shape medical and dental students’ perceptions of the body, of learning, and of medicine.
Currently, I am writing a book on contemporary conspiracy theories titled Imaging Conspiracy Theories: Visual Presence, Religious Belief, and QAnon.
T. Kenny Fountain 