Man in a green shirt smiling

Ben Lauren

Associate Professor; Director of Graduate Programs; Associate Chair; Graduate Faculty
He/Him/His
Office: 235 Bessey Hall
Email: blauren@msu.edu
Website: benlauren.com

Research Areas

Creative-critical Rhetorics, Institutional Change, Experiential Learning

Profile

Ben Lauren’s scholarly interests are creative-critical rhetorics, institutional change, and experiential learning. His scholarship has appeared in journals such as Computers and Composition, Reflections, Kairos, Transactions on Professional Communication, Technical Communication, and the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication. His first book, Communicating Project Management, interrogated participatory approaches to managing work, leadership, and organizational change. He is also an accomplished songwriter, best known for his work as singer/songwriter with the band No Address. As a solo artist he recorded, produced, and self-released an indie album called Stop For Nothing. He’s currently working on a new album about healing from trauma called Hold Me Down, which reimagines roots music as a way to explore the affective elements of genre.

Education

Ph.D., Technical Communication and Rhetoric, Texas Tech University (2014)

Representative Work 

Lauren, B. (2018). Communicating Project Management: A Participatory Rhetoric for Development Teams. New York, NY: Routledge.

Lauren, B., Hart-Davidson, W. (2018). Get off the grid, get in the groove: A phronetic progymnasma. PRE/TEXT: A Journal of Rhetorical Theory, 5. Retrieved from http://textshopexperiments.org/textshop05/get-off-the-grid

Lauren, B., & Pigg, S. (2016). The Egonets of Technical Communication Solopreneurs: Communication Practices, Genres, and Networks that Build and Sustain Careers. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 59(4), 342-362.

Selected Courses Taught

WRA 401: Rhetoric, Leadership, and Innovation

WRA 841: Professional Writing Theory and Research

WRA 853: Workshop in Rhetoric and Writing

WRA 885: Research Colloquium

Research or Academic Affiliations

WIDE (Researcher)
Broad User Research Group
SEEN.community

Social Media

Twitter: @benlauren