L-711, R.D. Parker Building
(705) 675-1151, ext. 4345
pspoel@laurentian.ca
RESEARCH INTERESTS
I teach and research primarily in the field of rhetorical and communication studies. My main schoarly interests are the history and theory of rhetoric, feminist approaches to rhetoric, and rhetoric of healthcare, as well as science and professional communication, disciplinary knowledge-making and communication, and writing across the curriculum. Currently, I am researching the rhetoric of midwifery healthcare in Canada as well as risk communication in the context of an environmental soils study. In addition to teaching in the Humanities M.A. in Interpretation and Values, I teach in the English Department's undergraduate Rhetoric and Media Studies stream and in Laurentian-Science North's Graduate Diploma in Science Communication.
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
Spoel, Philippa and Chantal Barriault. "Risk Knowledge and Risk Communication: The Rhetorical Challenge of Public Dialogue." Writing (in) the knowledge society. Ed. D. Starke-Mayering, A. Paré, N. Artemeva, M. Horne, and L. Yousoubova. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press and Fort Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse. Forthcoming.
Spoel, Philippa. "Communicating Values. Valuing Community through Healthcare Websites: Midwifery's On-Line Ethos and Public Communication in Ontario." Technical Communication Quarterly, Special Issue on On-Line Health Information. 17, 3 (2008): 264-288.
Spoel, Philippa. “Midwifery, Consumerism, and the Ethics of Informed Choice.” Bordering Biomedicine: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Disease. Ed. Peter L. Twohig and Vera Kalitzkus. Rodopi Publications, 2006.
Spoel, Philippa. “Re-Inventing Rhetorical Epistemology: Donna Haraway's and Nicole Brossard's Embodied Visions.” The Changing Tradition: Women in the History of Rhetoric. Ed. Christine Mason Sutherland and Rebecca Sutcliffe. Calgary, Alberta: U of Calgary P, 1999. 199-212.
Spoel, Philippa. “A Feminist Rhetorical Perspective on Informed Choice in Midwifery.” Rhetor: Journal of the Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric, Vol 2. Forthcoming. 17 manuscript pages.
Spoel, Philippa and Susan James. “Negotiating Public and Professional Interests: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Debate Concerning the Regulation of Midwifery in Ontario, Canada.” Journal of Medical Humanities. 27.3 (Fall 2006): 167-186.
Schryer, Catherine F. and Philippa Spoel. “Genre Theory, Healthcare Discourse, and Professional Identity Formation.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication (Special Issue on Medical Rhetoric) 19.3 (July 2005): 249-278.
Spoel, Philippa. “Rereading the Elocutionists: The Rhetoric of Thomas Sheridan’s A Course of Lectures on Elocution and John Walker’s Elements of Elocution.” Rhetorica: A Journal of the History of Rhetoric 19.1 (Winter 2001): 49-91.
Spoel, Philippa and Renée Corbeil. “Learning to Make Discipline-Specific Knowledge through Writing / Appronfondir des connaissances spécifiques à chaque discipline par l’écriture.” Technostyle 15.1 (Spring 1999): 20-53.