Jacqueline Rhodes, professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures, has been named inaugural director of the Consortium for Critical Diversity in a Digital Age Research, effective Aug. 16.
A part of MSU’s College of Arts and Letters, the consortium serves as an interdisciplinary catalyst for MSU scholarship that critically engages questions of diversity in a digital age. It advances creative activity at the intersections of self/society, digital/material and technology/culture rooted in the recognition that race, ethnicity, gender, religion and other forms of difference are central to digitally engaged student learning in the 21st century.
“Dr. Rhodes is herself a transformative and engaged scholar whose work embodies the dynamic, creative and justice-oriented research CEDAR was established to cultivate and advance,” said Christopher Long, dean of the College of Arts and Letters.
Rhodes joined the MSU faculty last fall. Her scholarly work focuses on intersections of rhetoric, materiality and technology. “In a complicated world of overwhelming data and the threat (and reality) of dehumanization at the technological and political levels, it’s critical that we move toward sustainable diversity, a deeply ethical move that enriches us all,” Rhodes said. “Difference makes us human. The CEDAR initiative celebrates those differences, but also acknowledges that historically (and in the present-day), differences have been used to alienate and do violence. One way to move is to seek out and actively support research that blends theory and praxis, university and community, philosophical argument and practical action, all in order to make our worlds more equitable and just.”
Prior to joining MSU, Rhodes worked as an English professor at California State University, San Bernardino. She has a doctorate in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, a Master of Arts in English from the University of Idaho and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Montana.