Research & Scholarship.

“If there’s a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

— Toni Morrison

  • Violent Subjects and Rhetorical Cartography in the Age of the Terror Wars

    Violent Subjects performs a rhetorical cartography of weaponized communication culture, exploring the possibilities for violent discourses to function in the post 9/11 world, refiguring technologies of governance and surveillance, with great implications for citizens both within the United States and globally. It is currently available from Palgrave MacMillan and at Amazon.

  • Mapping the Struggle

    Mapping the Struggle traces ways that rhetoric and public discourse are resources for exploring diasporic possibility created by communities living in the wake of racial violence. Drawing from cartographic approaches to social change, expanding on the notion of "thick rhetoric," and engaging public discourse around its paths of circulation, this book argues for mapping struggle across boundaries and borders. In so doing, conditions of possibility for new imaginations and infrastructures that examine systemic power surface. It is expected in 2024.

  • Great Minds: How Knowing Our Brain Changes the World (and Our Schools)

    In our post-pandemic landscape, we are increasingly asking ourselves: how do we learn? Great Minds maps new, accessible ways of thinking about how knowing our brain helps us understand how we learn, both in our everyday lives and in schools. Drawn from insights in neuroscience, belonging-based communication theory, and years of experience in education, Great Minds explores the design of learning spaces, approaches to memory & retention, and communicative methods, all rooted in understanding how our brain works, for effective long- and short-term learning.

Scroll through to read what reviewers say about Dr. Hayes’ work.

  • Hayes’ work is “incredibly important, not just as an analysis of the post-9/11 world, but as a remapping of our disciplinary boundaries…Her contribution transcends rhetoric and also creates a space for rhetoric to claim its own methodology, a task continuously sought and debated.”

    Rhetoric Society Quarterly (47:4, 2017) review of Violent Subjects

  • “Hayes’ theorizing here can take us a step in a better direction…she enhances our understanding of rhetorical circulation on a global scale, helping us further comprehend complex subjectivities at moments when rhetoric and violence travel together, offering us one possible path for mapping the future on levels both foreign and domestic.”

    Rhetoric Review (36:4, 2017) review of Violent Subjects

  • "Scholars of politics, rhetoric, and history will find much of value in this work."

    Dr. Mary E. Stuckey, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, on Violent Subjects

    The Pennsylvania State University, USA

  • “Heather Ashley Hayes has developed an innovative approach to interrogating the terror wars…Her project invites and opens a way for further cartographies aimed at a better understanding and productive critique of transnational empire.”

    Dr. Robert L. Ivie, Professor Emeritus, on Violent Subjects

    Indiana University, USA

  • “This book offers a new and provocative thesis on the rhetoric of violence.”

    Dr. Jeremy Engles, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, on Violent Subjects

    The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Selected Research Articles

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “The Superhero of Tahrir: How Martin Luther King, Jr. Transformed the 2010 Arab Uprising,” in final edits for a communication journal.

  • Kennicott, Ellie, Heather Ashley Hayes, and Marian Hampe. “‘Be the Light:’ Augmentative and Alternative Communication in Educational Spaces, Disability Rhetoric, and Presumed Competence,” in final edits for a communication studies journal.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “Rhetoric, but Make It Thick.” in final edits for a communication journal. Anticipated release date: fall 2023/spring 2024.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “Mapping Inter/National Terrain: On Violence, Definition, and Struggle from Afghanistan to Standing Rock.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 25, no. 3 (2022): 101-128.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “‘This New World is Not for the Faint Hearted:’ Confronting the Many Dimensions of Philippe-Joseph Salazar’s Words are Weapons: Inside ISIS’s Rhetoric of Terror.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 52, no. 3 (2019): 301-311.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “Breaking Rhetorical Boundaries: The Importance of Text + Field: Innovations in Rhetorical Method.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 21, no. 4 (2019): 733-736.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “The Thriving Life of the Racialized Weaponry: Violence and Sonic Capacities from the Drone to the Gun.” In The Lives of Guns: Symbolic and Material Construction of Weapons Across Borders edited by Austin Sarat, Andrew Poe, & Jonathan Obert. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2018: 95-122.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “The Case of Shura City: Rhetorical Cartography, Argument Mapping, and the Global War on Terror.” In Recovering Argument: Selected Papers of the 19th Biennial Conference on Argumentation, edited by Randall Lake. New York: Taylor and Francis Group, 2018: chapter 31.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “Doing Rhetorical Studies In Situ: The Nomad Citizen in Jordan,” Advances in the History of Rhetoric (Kathleen Lamp, guest editor; special issue: Rhetoric In Situ) 20, no. 2 (2017): 164-176.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley & Gilbert Rodman. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Film,” JumpCut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 56 (2015). Reprinted with newly authored introduction and captioned images.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. “Don’t Fear the Reaper: The Disturbing Case of How Drones Reconfigure Technologies of Deliberation.” In Disturbing Argument: Selected Papers of the 18th Biennial Conference on Argumentation, edited by Catherine Palczewski. New York: Taylor and Francis Group, 2015: 329-335

  • Greene, Ronald Walter and Heather Ashley Hayes. "Rhetorical Materialism: The Cognitive Divisions of Labor and the Social Dimensions of Argument."  Argumentation and Advocacy  88, no. 3 (2012): 190-193.

  • Hayes, Heather Ashley. Review of Mass Deception: Moral Panic and the U.S. War on Iraq by Scott A. Bonn. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 98, no. 4 (Winter 2012): 467-470.

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Selected Talks

  • “Cartographies of Discomfort: Temporality, Cartography, and Violent Space”

    ·       Invited talk at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Department of Communication Arts, Graduate Program Colloquium, April 13, 2023

  • “Where the Map Breathes”

    ·       Cartographies of Violence/Rhetorics of War, In and Against the Fog of War: Mappings from the Front Line research series, LivingMaps Network, London (global webinar event), November 28, 2022

  • “Belonging v. Equity? How Understanding Public Discourse & Histories of Social Inequality Transform Our Missions”

    ·       Invited talk at Oregon Health Science University, Global Public Health Outreach Project, September 1, 2022

  • “Public Discourse, Addressing Houselessness, & Evolving Political Change”

    ·       Public talk, Portland Mutual Aid Network, Portland, Oregon, June 2022

  • “Accessibility, Neurodiscourse, and Higher Education’s Future”

    ·       Northwest Technology Institute: Accessibility & Inclusion Conference, Lewis & Clark College, June 2022

  • “The Future of Creativity, Innovation, & Accessibility in Higher Education”

    ·       Mentor at SXSW EDU Festival & Conference, Austin, TX, March 7-10, 2022

  • “One Cup of Mint Tea at a Time: Overcoming Unbeatable Odds in the Era of Medicalized Solutions”

    ·       Invited talk at University of Washington Medical Center, November 22, 2021

  • “The Global War on Terror, Twenty Years In: From Everyday Surveillance to the Carceral State”

    ·       Invited talk at the Center for Strategic Studies, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, September 2021 (moved to Zoom due to COVID-19 travel restrictions)

  • “Carceral Education: How We Get Free”

    ·       Keynote presentation, The Teach Out Formerly Incarcerated Family Support Organization, Seattle, Washington, October 2020

  • “Racialized Legacies of 9/11: Our Unending Era(s) of Terror”

    ·       Invited talk at the University of Houston Grand Challenges and Powerful Voices Forum, Houston, Texas, September 11, 2020 (moved online via Zoom due to COVID-19)

  • “Disparate Stories of Violence and Migration: Finding the Nomad Citizen in Northern Jordan”

    ·       Invited talk at Lewis & Clark College’s Middle East and North Africa Studies’ Symposium, Portland, Oregon, April 3-4, 2020. (Format shifted due to COVID-19, presentations moved to print newsletter format.)

  • “Banality, Violence, and the New Droneworld”

    ·       Invited talk at the “Life Under Drones” Symposium, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, September 18-19, 2019

  • Expert Respondent to Dr. Ian E.J. Hill’s Advocating Weapons, War, and Terrorism: Technological and Rhetorical Paradox

    ·       Prepared talk in the American Society for the History of Rhetoric division, National Communication Association annual conference, Baltimore, Maryland, November 2019

  • “Mass Incarceration: What is the Story?”

    ·       Invited talk at the RADLab Digital Storytelling pilot program, hosted by popUPjustice, Washington state, USA, June 13, 2018

  • "Terror Arguments Boomerang from Waziristan to Standing Rock: Argumentative Frameworks and the US Surveillance State"

    ·       Presentation at the International Society for the Study of Argument Biennial Conference, Amsterdam, July 4-8, 2018

  • "Embracing Networked Criminality: Dispatches from the Argumentative Frameworks of Hacktivism"

    ·       Presentation at the NCA/AFA Alta Biennial Conference on Argumentation, Alta, Utah, USA, July 29, 2017

  • "The Thriving Life of Racialized Weaponry: Violence and Sonic Capacities from the Drone to the Gun"

    ·       Presentation at Amherst College's Symbolic and Material Life of Guns symposium, 2017 Copeland Colloquium, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, March 4, 2017

  • "Rhetoric, Violence, and Assemblages of Fear: Mapping the Terror Wars from Standing Rock to Raqqa"

    ·       Invited talk at University of Utah Department of Communication Studies Research Symposium, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, November 9, 2017

  • “The Dawn of Humanitarian Weapons: Discourses about A Kinder, Friendlier Killing Machine”

    ·       Invited talk at the British International Studies Association’s Contemporary Research on International Political Theory group Bodies of War symposium, University of Lancaster, United Kingdom, November 2016

  • "American Politics and US Understandings of the Arab World"

    ·       Invited talk at the Aida Refugee Camp outside Bethlehem, Palestine, July 2016

  • “‘Do We Target Our Own?’ Making Sense of Discourses and the Death of Anwar al-Awlaqi”

    ·       Invited talk based on Violent Subjects at the Center for Strategic Studies, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, June 2016

  • "The Terror Wars Drone On...Or Don't They?"

    ·       Invited talk at the University of Minnesota, based on Violent Subjects, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, March 2016

  • "The Dawn of Humanitarian Weapons: Discourse, the Presidency, and the Dark Corners of Obama's Terror Wars"

    ·       Presentation at the Annual National Communication Association conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, November 21, 2015

  • "Shura City: Rhetorical Cartography and Remapping the Global War on Terror"

    ·       Presentation to the Rhetorical Theory and Criticism Interest Group, Central States Communication Association annual conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, April 2-6, 2014

  • "The Buzzing of the Drones: Circulating Violence from Waziristan to Washington"

    ·       Invited talk at Grinnell College, Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights, Annual Symposium on Drone Warfare, Grinnell, Iowa, USA, September 9-11, 2014

  • "The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Seduction: Discourses of the United States Drone Program"

    ·       Presentation at the Weapons of Mass Seduction  International Rhetoric Conference, co-sponsored by the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, The Netherlands and Ghent University in Belgium, November 2013

  • "Blood on the Leaves: Violence, the Body, and the Possibility of Hip-Hop"

    ·       Invited talk by the Associated Students of Whitman College-led Power and Privilege Symposium, Walla Walla, Washington, USA, February 2014

  • "Choosing Reasonableness in a New Era of Unreasonableness: 21st Century Consequences of 20th Century Rhetorical Projects"

    ·       Panel presenter, "Hannah Arendt, Rhetoric, and Violence: A 21st Century (Re)understanding," sponsored by the American Society for the History of Rhetoric, Southern States Communication Association annual conference, Louisville, Kentucky, USA, April 2013

  • "Don't Fear the Reaper: How Drones Reconfigure Technologies of Deliberation"

    ·       Presentation to the NCA/AFA ALTA biannual conference on argumentation, Alta, Utah, USA, August 2013

  • "Analysis of the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate"

    ·       Series respondent, University of Minnesota Debate Watch, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, October 2012

  • "No Really, Your Actual Eyes: Seeing Things in Aristotle's Rhetoric"

    ·       Presented to the American Society for the History of Rhetoric division, Top Papers Panel, Southern States Communication Association annual conference, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, April 2012

  • "College Voters and Changing Ideologies of Political Presence: The Effect of Race and Sex on Candidate Credibility"

    ·       Presented to Political Communication division, Southern States Communication Association annual conference, awarded Top Student Paper for the division, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, April 2011

  • "Competing Notions of Time and History: Re-reading Frederick Douglass'  Fourth of July"

    ·       Presented to Rhetorical and Communication theory division, National Communication Association annual conference, San Diego, California, USA, November, 2010