Judy Segal PhD

I teach courses in history and theory of rhetoric, and in rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine; I am a faculty member in the Science and Technology Studies Graduate Program. My research interests are both interdisciplinary, under the headings of “Science and Technology Studies” and “Health Humanities,” and disciplinary, under the headings of “History and Theory of Rhetoric” and “Rhetoric of Health and Medicine.” I am delighted currently to be on the editorial board of the brand new journal, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine. My recent work has been on rhetorical elements in public discourse on pain; drugs; breast cancer; and female sexual dysfunction. I am currently working on a project titled (for now), “What do we talk about when we talk about aging?” I explore dislodging old age, as much as possible, from the rhetoric of health itself. I look too at ageism, especially the rhetorical power of age-related microagressions.

My essays appear in rhetoric journals, interdisciplinary health journals, and medical journals. I am author of Health and the Rhetoric of Medicine (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005). I have been a member of the President’s Advisory Committee of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a Distinguished Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, and recipient of a Killam Teaching Prize.