Rachael Graham Lussos

Rachael Graham Lussos

Rachael Graham Lussos

Adjunct Faculty

medical rhetoric, health communication, proposal writing, activism, multimodal composition

Rachael Graham Lussos researches the rhetorics of quantification in the context of chronic pain. She has also studied proposal writing instruction, the rhetoric of sexual assault in news reports, and the activist potential of multimodal composition, examining both birthday cakes and Twitter bots as mediums. Rachael is a professional writing instructor and consultant.

Selected Publications

Lawrence, H. Y., Fernandez, L., Lussos, R. G., Stabile, B., & Broeckelman-Post, M. (2019). Communicating campus sexual assault: A mixed methods rhetorical analysis. Technical Communication Quarterly. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/10572252.2019.1621386

Lussos, R. (2019). Quantifying chronic pain: A mixed-methods analysis of chronic pain sufferers’ public and private discourse. The Journal of Pain, 20(4), S60.

St.Amant, K. (2018). Contextualized time and kairotic care in health and medicine (R. G. Lussos, Interviewer). Technoculture. Retrieved from https://tcjournal.org/vol8/contextualized-time

Lussos, R. G. (2018). Have your epideictic rhetoric, and eat it, too. The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics (JOMR), 2(1).

Lussos, R. G. & Fernandez, L. (2018). Assault and accusation without agents: Verb voice in media narratives of campus sexual assault. Journal of Mason Graduate Research (JMGR), 5(2).

Holmes, S. & Lussos, R. G. (2018). Cultivating metanoia in Twitter publics: Analyzing and producing bots of protest in the #gamergate controversy. Computers and Composition.

Lawrence, H., Lussos, R. G., & Clarke, J. (2017). Rhetorics of proposal writing: Lessons for pedagogy in research and real-world practice. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (JTWC). Advance online publication.

Lussos, R. G. (2017). Twitter bots as digital writing assignments. PraxisWiki, 22(2).

Lussos, R. G. (2017, March). Keith Wailoo. Pain: A Political History. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. $29.95. pp. 284. Paper. ISBN: 9781421413655. [Review of the book Pain: A political history, by K. Wailoo]. World Medical & Health Policy, 9, 1.

Lussos, R. G. (2016, September). The multiperspectival rhetorical situation as a method for rhetorical analysis and communication development. Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication. Article No. 46.

Grants and Fellowships

Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, $5,059, National Science Foundation, 2019

Courses Taught

Theory and Practice of Editing, George Mason University English Department

Proposal Writing in Context, Society for Technical Communication (STC)

Executive Clarity, American University Key Executive Leadership Program

Multilingual Composition, George Mason University English Department

Education

PhD, Writing and Rhetoric
George Mason University

MFA, Creative Writing
George Mason University

Graduate Certificate, Professional Writing & Rhetoric
George Mason University

Recent Presentations

Lussos, R. G. (2019, March). Accountable research in/on pain: Lessons from a crystallization of quantitative, qualitative, and reflective research. Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) 2019. Pittsburgh, PA.

Lussos, R. G. (2019, March). Room for growth in growing pains: Reflections on a new PhD program with a new PhD approach. Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) 2019. Pittsburgh, PA.

Lawrence, H. Y., Ferguson, E., Fernandez, L., & Lussos, R. G. (2018, September). Implementing high impact practices (HIP) in mentorship of graduate students and undergraduate researchers. Innovations in Teaching & Learning (IT&L) 2018. Fairfax, VA.

Lawrence, H. Y., Lussos, R. G., Fernandez, L. & Stabile, B. Analyzing complex public problems: Rhetoric in the case of campus sexual assault. Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) 2018. Minneapolis, MN.

Lawrence, H. Y. & Lussos, R. G. (2018, May). The phronesis of proposal writing. Computers and Writing 2018. Fairfax, VA.

Lussos, R. G. (2018, February). The agency of opioids in the opioid crisis. New Biopolitics Conference. Washington, DC.

Lussos, R. G. (2017, November). “More people die from drug overdoses than from car accidents”: What drug statistics mean for opioid use. NCA 2017 ARSTM Preconference. Dallas, TX.

Lussos, R. G. (2017, June). Ethical implications of routine urine drug testing of pain patients. Communication, Medicine and Ethics (COMET) 2017. Indianapolis, IN.

Lussos, R. G. (2017, June). Teaching composition with Twitter bots. Computers and Writing 2017. Findlay, OH.

In the Media

STC’s Notebook. (2018, November). Meet the November 2018 Technical Communication cover artist [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.stc.org/notebook/2018/11/14/meet-the-november-2018-technical-communication-cover-artist/

Frank, D. (2017, June 26). C&W session F1: Critical making as emergent techne. [Conference presentation review.] Digital Rhetoric Collaborative. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from http://www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org/2017/06/26/cw-session-f1-critical-making-as-emergent-techne/