CULTRA Lab

Cultural and Technical Rhetorics Analysis

Avery Edenfield at a computer doing field work

What We Do

The CULTRA Lab explores the intersections of technical and cultural rhetorics in public contexts. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, our goal is to produce impactful research and engage communities to drive meaningful change. Fundamentally, the lab’s work in technical and cultural rhetorics is directed toward generating public, democratic goods for the commons. 

Impact

The CUTLRA Lab is excited to announce a media mention in The Verge about the PI of the lab, Dr. Edenfield's article titled, "Doing it for themselves," addressing how resources on transitioning survive the era of surveillance and AI slop.
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Principal Investigator

Avery Edenfield

Avery Edenfield

Associate Professor | CULTRA Lab PI

Communication

News

Publication News: Ethics of Care and Project Management Studies
Congratulations to PI Dr. Avery Edenfield and lab affiliate Nancy Mae Jarvis on their recent publication, Ethics of Care and Project Management Studies.

About the paper:
Project management is conventionally understood as neutral organizational methods composed of tools and standardized processes. This framing obscures the relational and interpretive work required to sustain collaboration and achieve successful outcomes. Rather than functioning solely as a set of tools, project management operates as a rhetorical and relational practice that structures how meaning is made, how responsibilities are distributed, and how collaboration unfolds over time.
Read the paper for free!

Nancy Mae Jarvis holds an award in front of the presentation
Doctoral Student Presents at Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication
On October 10, 2026, Nancy Mae Jarvis, a doctoral student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Utah State University, presented “Teaching Ethics of Care and Project Management,” co-authored with Avery C. Edenfield. Jarvis presented at the annual meeting of the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC), hosted by Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. The presentation asks how instructors in undergraduate technical and professional communication programs might teach project management as a human-centered practice rather than a set of techniques and tools. Jarvis and Edenfield propose care ethics as a framework for that instruction. Drawing on Joan Tronto’s account of care as a process that moves from recognizing a need, to taking responsibility for it, to giving care and evaluating its effects, they show how each stage maps onto the rhetorical skills students need to plan, run, and reflect on projects with attention to stakeholders. While interest in care ethics has grown across the field, their work identifies the project management classroom as a place where care has yet to take hold and offers educators a way to bring it there.

Past News

Projects

Queer Ethics and Being
This project's subject matter is the rhetoric and ethics of transgender medical literacies, particularly in online spaces.
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Erased By Design: Technical Documents and Historical Oppression
This new project rests at the intersection of technical, cultural, and public rhetorics, examining the impacts of a nuclear weapons plant on a small, primarily Black tenant farmed land.
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Sex Worker Risk Communication Project
This new project rests at the intersections of feminist theory, tactical technical communication, and digital rhetorics to examine the unique work-arounds sex workers from various positionalities engage in for economic survival, safety and dignity.
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Student Affiliate

Nancy Jarvis

Nancy Jarvis (she/her) is a PhD student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Utah State University, working with Dr. Avery Edenfield and expecting to finish in spring 2028. Her research looks at how communication practices shape collaboration, accessibility, and decision-making inside organizations, drawing on technical communication, organizational rhetoric, project management, and the ethics of care. She is especially interested in how documents, workflows, and everyday processes affect who gets to participate and who has access to information, and she pursues those questions through community-engaged and participatory research. In the lab, Nancy brings experience in qualitative interviewing, process mapping, and workflow analysis, along with a habit of turning research into practical resources people can use. She plans to contribute to collaborative projects, publications, and conference work that connect technical communication scholarship to real changes in how organizations serve their communities.