Josh Dicaglio
Since I first heard about SLSA as an undergraduate in Laura Walls's Literature and Science class over ten years ago, it has served as an essential community, providing valuable models for what a scholar can be, fruitful professional connections, and excellent opportunities for sharing research. I have attended SLSA four times (once at the SLSAeu in Malta), and my article, which was recently published in Configurations, won the 2020 SLSA's Schachterle essay prize. In response to this incredible support, I'd like an opportunity to assist the organization as a member-at-large. I hope to assist in whatever way I can to help the organization remain an exciting and rigorous venue for innovative work on science in the arts and humanities, including assisting the organization with bouncing back from the disruptions brought by Covid-19.
Joshua DiCaglio is an Assistant Professor in English at the Texas A&M University, specializing in rhetoric of science, history and theory of rhetoric, and environmental humanities. His book, Scale Theory: A Nondisciplinary Inquiry, is forthcoming with the University of Minnesota Press in 2021. This book develops a theory of scale arising from the simple observation: how is it possible that science has rewritten any given object (e.g. your body) in these multiple and seemingly conflicting levels (as atoms, cells, ecological vectors, elements in the thermodynamic dispersal of the sun)? This project has spawned side projects that examine particular manifestations and applications of scale, including a piece in Environmental Communication that argues that scale and interconnection are the primary rhetorical challenges entailed by ecology and another in Configurations on the challenges presented by representations of scale.