Ruben “Ruby” Mendoza
PhD Graduate Research Assistant
They/Them/Their
Email: mendo119@msu.edu
Research Interests
Technical and Professional Communication; Medical, Queer, and Transgender Rhetorics; UX Design, Strategy, and Methods; Social Justice
Profile
Ruben “Ruby” Mendoza (they/them) is a second-year doctoral student concentrating in Medical Rhetorics, UX Methods, and Social Justice. Ruby, a California native, earned their BA at California State University, Chico in English Studies and completed their MA at San Diego State University in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, specializing in the teaching of writing. Ruby’s current project focuses on rhetorics of health and medicine (RHM), primarily transgender medicine and how UX methods/strategies can support RHM research for actionable and transformative institutional change.
Education
MA in Rhetoric and Writing Studies (Specialization in the Teaching of Writing), San Diego State University
BA in English Studies, California State University, Chico
Representative Work
Research
Mendoza, Ruben. “Building Queer Trans/formative Methodologies: Critiquing Institutionalized Cistems of Oppression.” Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Journal, 2023 (Forthcoming)
Book Reviews
Mendoza, Ruben. “Book Review—Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work by Rebecca Walton and Godwin Y. Agboka.” Technical Communication Quarterly, 2022 (Forthcoming)
Mendoza, Ruben. “Book Review—The Borders of AIDS: Race, Quarantine & Resistance by Karma R. Chávez.” Literacy in Composition Studies. 2022 (Forthcoming)
Conferences
Flores, Wilfredo; Hopkins, Hannah; Mendoza, R. Ruben; Edwards, Dustin; Graves, Seth; and Gonzales, Laura. “Wording and Worlding the Colonial Internet.” Computers and Writing Conference, 2022 (Proposed)
Botex, Sharikea; Kang, Stephie; Mendoza, Ruben; and Reyes, Autumn. “Anti-racist Work, Whose Call?: BIPOC Graduate Students Answering the Call By Proposing Collective Community Work To Make Anti-Racist Change” CCCC Annual Convention. March 2022 (Accepted)
Mendoza, R. Ruben. “Life Saving Knowledges and Critical Frameworks to Disrupt Heteronormativity,” Humanities Commons’ Online Communities and Transformative Justice at MSU, March 2021
Mendoza, R. Ruben. “Hollow Eve: Disrupting Heteronormative Queer Spaces.” San Diego State University’s Fall Conference on Pedagogy and Research, August 2019
Mendoza, R. Ruben. “Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Bodies: Redefining and Queering Drag.” San Diego State University’s English Graduate Symposium, April 2019.
Mendoza, R. Ruben. “Rhetorical Effects of Military Metaphors and Tropes During the Early AIDS Epidemic: A Social Semiotic Approach.” California State University, Chico English Graduate Symposium, March 2018
Mendoza, R. Ruben. “Rhetorical Effects of Military Metaphors and Tropes During the Early AIDS Epidemic: A Social Semiotic Approach.” Chico State Humanities and Fine Arts Symposium, April 2018.
Awards and Recognitions
University Enrichment Fellow
Courses Taught
WRA 441: Social Justice as Rhetorical Practice (GRA w/ Dr. Natasha Jones)
Social Media
Twitter: @RubyRMENDOZA