STEPH CERASO

University of Virginia. English Department. Bryan Hall 219, Charlottesville, VA 22904

stephceraso@gmail.com | www.stephceraso.com

Professional Appointments

Associate Professor, Digital Writing & Rhetoric. English Department. University of Virginia. 2020–
present.

Affiliated Faculty. Music Department. University of Virginia. 2021–present.

Assistant Professor, Digital Writing & Rhetoric. English Department. University of Virginia. 2016–2020.

Assistant Professor. English Department. University of Maryland, Baltimore County. 2014–2016.

Lecturer. English Department. Georgetown University. 2013–2014.

Visiting Lecturer. English Department. Western Carolina University. 2006–2008.

Education

Ph.D. English (Composition, Literacy, Pedagogy, Rhetoric). University of Pittsburgh. 2013.

M.A. English Literature. University of Vermont. 2006.

B.A. English Literature. Washington and Jefferson College. 2004.

Publications

Books

Sound Never Tasted So Good: ‘Teaching’ Sensory Rhetorics. Intermezzo ebook. 2019.
http://intermezzo.enculturation.net/11-ceraso.htm.

Reviewed in Reviews in Digital Humanities (2021)

Sounding Composition: Multimodal Pedagogies for Embodied Listening. University of Pittsburgh Press.
2018.

Reviewed in Sounding Out! (2019); Computers and Composition (2019); Enculturation (2020); College
English (2021); Rhetoric Society Quarterly (2021), Kairos (2021)
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Articles

“Sonic Scenes of Writing.” College English. 84.4. (March 2022): 311-334.

“Learning as Coordination: Postpedagogy and Design.” Coauthored with Matthew Pavesich and Designer
Jeremy Boggs. Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture 28 (Spring 2019)
http://enculturation.net/learning_as_coordination.

“The Digital: Rhetoric Behind and Beyond the Screen.” Coauthored with Jim Brown and Casey Boyle.
Rhetoric Society Quarterly 48.3 (2018): 251-259.

“‘Making It’ in the Academy through Horizontal Mentoring.” Coauthored with Pamela VanHaitsma.
Peitho 19.2 (Spring 2017): 210-233.

“Composing with Sound.” Coauthored with Kati Fargo Ahern. Composition Studies 43.2 (2015): 13-18.

“(Re)Educating the Senses: Multimodal Listening, Bodily Learning, and the Composition of Sonic
Experiences." College English 77.2 (November 2014): 102-123.

“Digital Lyrical.” Coauthored with Geoffrey Sirc. Currents in Electronic Literacy. Special Issue: Writing with
Sound (Spring 2011) http://currents.dwrl.utexas.edu/2011/digitallyrical.html.

“The Destabilization of Masculinity in A House for Mr. Biswas and The Mimic Men.” Coauthored with
Patricia Connolly. Mosaic: a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature 42.3 (September 2009): 109-
126.

Reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jennifer Stock. Vol. 457. Layman Poupard. Detroit:
Gale, Cengage, 2019: 182-91.

“Survivors’ Tales: Cultural Trauma, Postmemory, and the Role of the Reader in Art Spiegelman’s Visual
Narratives.” EnterText 6.3 (Winter 2007): 204-228.

Book Chapters

“Sound Practices for Digital Humanities.” Digital Sound Studies. Eds. Mary Caton Lingold, Darren Mueller,
and Whitney Trettien. Duke University Press. 2018.

Digital Projects

“Sound.” Keyword Essay and Digital Artifacts. Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Concepts, Models, and
Experiments. Edited by Rebecca Frost Davis, Matthew K. Gold, Katherine D. Harris, and Jentery Sayers.
Modern Language Association. 2020. https://digitalpedagogy.hcommons.org/keyword/Sound.
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Editorial Work

Coeditor with Steve Parks, Beverly Moss, Brian Baillie, Julia Voss, and Heather Christiansen. The Best of
Rhetoric and Composition 2012: Essays from the Independent Journals. Parlor Press. 2014.

Associate Editor. The Best of Rhetoric and Composition 2011: Essays from the Independent Journals. Eds.
Steve Parks, Brian Baillie, and Stacey Waite. Parlor Press. 2013.

Guest Coeditor with Jon Stone. Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion. Special Issue: Sonic
Rhetorics (Spring 2013) http://harlotofthearts.org/index.php/harlot/issue/view/9.

Reviews

“SoundCite Review.” SoundBox. Franklin Humanities Institute. Duke University. October 2013.
http://sites.fhi.duke.edu/soundbox/2013/10/02/soundcite-review-by-steph-ceraso/.

"Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age" by Adam Banks. Reflections: A Journal of
Writing, Service Learning, and Community Literacy 11.1 (Fall 2011): 169-172.

Works in Progress

Accepted Foreword. “Foreword and Backward.” Amplifying Soundwriting. Eds. Kyle Stedman, Courtney
Danforth, and Michael Faris.

In-Progress Article. “Ticking Clocks: Rhetorics of Tenure and Fertility.” Coauthored article with Pamela
VanHaitsma.

In-Progress Edited Collection. (Re)Making Sense: Composition and Rhetoric at the End of Rationality.
Coeditor with Jon Stone.

Awards and Fellowships

Faculty Summer Research Stipend. College of Arts and Sciences. University of Virginia. Summer 2022.

Faculty Summer Research Stipend. College of Arts and Sciences. University of Virginia. Summer 2021.

Collaborator. “Pedagogical Portals: Platforms to Support Community-Engaged Classrooms.”

College’s Learning Technology Incubator (LTI) Grant Program. University of Virginia. Spring 2021.

Sesquicentennial (4th year) Associate. College of Arts and Sciences. University of Virginia. Spring 2020.

Best Syllabus Award for “Digital Writing: Remix.” Center for Teaching Excellence Course Design Institute.
University of Virginia. 2017.
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Richard Ohmann Award for Outstanding Article in College English for my 2014 article, “(Re)Educating the
Senses.” National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). 2015.

College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Summer Faculty Research Fellowship. University of
Maryland, Baltimore County. Summer 2015.

Andrew Mellon Dissertation Fellowship. University of Pittsburgh. 2012–2013.

English Department’s 2011-2012 Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching Assistants and
Fellows. University of Pittsburgh. 2012.

Digital Media at Pitt (DM@P) Fellowship. University of Pittsburgh. 2011–2012.

Elizabeth Baranger Excellence in Teaching Award. University of Pittsburgh. Kenneth P. Dietrich School of
Arts and Sciences. 2011.

HASTAC Scholars Fellowship. Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh. 2010–2012.

Selected Digital Publications

"A Tale of Two Soundscapes: The Story of My Listening Body." Provoke! Digital Sound Studies. Eds. Mary
Caton Lingold, Darren Mueller, and Whitney Trettien. John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. Duke
University. January 2015. http://soundboxproject.com/index.html.

“Snap, Crackle, Pop: The Sonic Pleasures of Food.” Sounding Out! July 2014.
https://soundstudiesblog.com/2014/07/14/snap-crackle-pop-the-sonic-pleasures-of-food/.

“Swinging Through Spheres: Jazz, Gender, and Mobility.” Nebula 3.2–3.3 (September 2006): 46-54.
http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Ceraso.pdf.

Invited Talks, Seminars, and Workshops

Guest Speaker (Zoom). Kerry Banazek’s “Sound Writing and Sonic Rhetorics” graduate seminar. English
Department. New Mexico State University. November 2021.

Panelist. “Supporting Writing in Unusual Times.” Rhetoric Society of America Remote. February 2021.

“Bittersweet Symphony: Sound and Multisensory Experience.” Brown University. Music Department.
March 2020.

“Why Teach Listening in an English Department?” Case Western Reserve University. English Department.
March 2019.
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“Sounding the Humanities: Podcast Production, Writing, and Embodied Inquiry.” University of
Wisconsin—Milwaukee. Digital Humanities Lab. February 2019.

“Teaching Sensory Rhetorics: Sound Design, Comfort Food, and Rhetorical Education.” English
Department. Penn State University. October 2017.

Co-Instructor with Jim Brown and Casey Boyle. “Digital Rhetoric Beyond the Screen.” A seminar at the
Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute. Indiana University. May 2017.

“Art Lives: The Generative Nature of Fandom.” Rutgers-Camden Archive of Digital Ephemera (R-CADE)
Symposium. Rutgers University-Camden. April 2016.

“Sonic Object Design: Sounding Function and Failure in Everyday Things.” Co-led with Steven Hammer.
English Department. University of Pittsburgh. February 2016.

“Sound Never Tasted So Good: Enlivening Multimodal Composition Pedagogy.” English Department.
University of Pittsburgh. February 2016.

“Sounding Composition: Teaching Listening in the 21st Century.” English Department. Georgia State
University. February 2016.

Guest Speaker (Skype). Alexandra Hidalgo’s “Academic Memoirs Across Media” graduate seminar.
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures. Michigan State University. November 2015.

Invited Participant. Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute. Seminar in “Rhetoric & Sensation.”
University of Wisconsin, Madison. June 1-7 2015.

“Musical Experimentation in the Writing Classroom.” English Department Pedagogy Forum. University of
Virginia. April 2015.

Panelist. “Graduate Students and Digital Presence.” Conference on College Composition and
Communication. Graduate Student Special Interest Group. Tampa. March 2015.

“Making Sense of Sound: Learning to Listen in the 21st Century.” John Hope Franklin Humanities
Institute. Duke University. February 2015.

"Listening Bodies, Digital Production, and the Pursuit of Invigorated Sonic Experiences." Maryland
Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). University of Maryland, College Park. “Digital
Dialogues” Series. October 2014.

“Sonic Pedagogies and the Composition Classroom.” Conference on College Composition and
Communication. Indianapolis. March 2014.

Visiting Buckham Scholar. “Digital Possibilities in Rhet/Comp.” University of Vermont. November 2011.

“Sound Teaching: Bringing Music and Audio into the Composition Classroom.” Conference on College
Composition and Communication. Atlanta. March 2011.
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Conference Presentations

Roundtable on “Sonic Approaches to Inclusivity and Social Justice.” Chair. Conference on College
Composition and Communication. Moved online due to pandemic. Will be presented March 2022.

“What Is a Voice?” Sound Studies, Rhetoric, and Writing Conference. Online via Humanities Commons.
October 2020.

“Machine Voices, Authenticity, Identity.” Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Milwaukee. March 2020. *Accepted but not presented (conference cancelled due to pandemic).

“Performing a Community of Inquiry: Digital Pedagogy at Pitt.” Conference on College Composition and
Communication. Pittsburgh. March 2019.

“Writing (and Not Writing) with Sound: Podcast Production and Embodied Inquiry.” Conference on
College Composition and Communication. Kansas City. March 2018.

“My Listening Body: Teaching Empathy through Embodied Inquiry.” Feminisms & Rhetorics Conference.
Dayton. October 2017.

“21st Century Progymnnasmata: From Postpedagogy to Design Pedagogy.” Thomas R. Watson

Conference. Louisville. October 2016.

“Sounding Composition: Teaching Multimodal Listening.” Modern Language Association Annual

Convention. Austin. January 2016.

“Women’s Ways of Making It as New Faculty on the Tenure Track.” Feminisms & Rhetorics Conference.
Tempe. October 2015.

“Teaching Multisensory Listening Practices to Invigorate Digital Composition.” Inertia: A Conference on

Sound, Media, and the Digital Humanities. Los Angeles. April 2015.

“Sensory Rhetorics in Ambient Environments.” Panel Chair. Conference on College Composition and
Communication. Tampa. March 2015.

“Sonic Rhetorics: Teaching Listening in the Multimodal Composition Classroom.” Feminisms & Rhetorics
Conference. Stanford. September 2013.

“‘I listen with my eyes’: American Sign Language, Listening Bodies, and Rhetorical Spaces.” Rhetoric
Society of America. Philadelphia. May 2012.

“Listening Bodies: Deaf Musicians and Multimodal Composing Practices.” Conference on College
Composition and Communication. St. Louis. March 2012.

“Digital Media @ Pitt: Behind the Scenes of Multimodal, Creative-Critical Media Production.” HASTAC
Conference. Ann Arbor. December 2011.
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“Sound, Deafness, and the Denaturalization of Listening.” American Anthropology Association

Conference. Montreal. November 2011.

“The (Invisible) Work of Collaborative Learning in Digital Production.” Thomas R. Watson Conference.
Louisville. October 2010.

“Sounding Lives, Writing Identities: Complexity and Creativity in Oral Composing Environments.” Panel
Chair. “Composing Ourselves” Conference. Cincinnati. April 2010.

“Remixing Literacy: iPods, Podcasts, and Audio Texts.” Panel Chair. Conference on College Composition
and Communication. Louisville. March 2010.

“Rhetoric Retold: Rock Criticism, Music Memoirs, and the Advancement of Feminist Discourse.”
Feminisms & Rhetorics Conference. East Lansing. October 2009.

“The Album as Literature: Learning to Listen in the Composition Classroom.” Panel Chair. Conference on
College Composition and Communication. San Francisco. March 2009.

“Stylized Rebels: Nostalgia and Masculinity in Contemporary Garage Rock.” Popular and American
Culture Association Conference. Boston. April 2007.

“Swinging Gender: The (Almost) Unstoppable ‘All-Girl’ Bands of the 1940s.” Gender Research
Conference. Western Carolina University. Cullowhee, NC. March 2007.

“Memory as Disease: The Contagious Excess of Trauma in Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers. Panel
Chair. Southwest Popular Culture Association Conference. Albuquerque. February 2007.

Teaching

University of Virginia
ENWR1510: Writing and Critical Inquiry: Music, Writing, Identity
ENWR1510: Writing and Critical Inquiry: Experiments in Learning
ENWR1510: Writing and Critical Inquiry: Digital Humans
ENWR3640: Writing with Sound
ENWR3650: Digital Writing: Remix
ENSP8559: Theories of Voice in Writing and Media (graduate course)
ENGL8900: Pedagogy Seminar (graduate course)

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

ENGL300: Analysis of Texts and Contexts
ENGL324: Theories of Communication and Technology
ENGL387: Web Design and Multimedia Authoring
ENGL435: Intro to Digital Humanities
ENGL493/625: Material Culture and Production: Sound, Composition, & Culture
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Georgetown University
HUMW 011: Humanities and Writing

University of Pittsburgh
ENGCMP 0200: Seminar in Composition
ENGCMP 0200: Seminar in Composition: Education
ENGCMP 0200: Seminar in Composition: Music, Sound, & Voice
ENGCMP 0200: Seminar in Composition: Pop Music
ENGCMP 610W: Composing Digital Media

Western Carolina University

ENGL 101: Composition I
ENGL 102: Composition II
ENGL 102: The Album as Literature
ENGL 102h: Honors Composition II
ENGL 206: Literature of Place
ENGL 207: Jazz, Identity, and the Cultural Imagination

University of Vermont
ENG 001: Written Expression

Graduate Committees

Alexander Christie. Dissertation Committee Member. Music Department. University of Virginia. 2020–
present.

Mary Chandler Philpott. M.A. Thesis Director. “Mommy Podcasts: A Feminist Reading of What to Expect
and Big Fat Positive.” University of Virginia. Master’s Degree Awarded 2020.

Eva Höenigess. M.A. Thesis Director. “Feminist Pedagogy in the Trump Era.” University of Virginia.
Master’s Degree Awarded 2019.

Daria Kuznetsova. M.A. Thesis Committee Member. “Tackling Diversity Through First-Year
Composition.” University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Master’s Degree Awarded 2016.

Dorothy Stachowiak. M. A. Thesis Committee. "Fannish Pareidolia: Criticism Through Creative

Composition." University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Master’s Degree Awarded 2015.

Service

National

Peer Reviewer (ad hoc since 2014) for Rhetoric Review, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Enculturation,
Intermezzo, Peitho, Composition Forum, Journal of Sonic Studies, and HyperRhiz: New Media Cultures.
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Conference Advisory Board Member. Sound, Rhetoric, & Writing Conference. Fall 2018–present.

Proposal Reviewer. Computers and Writing Conference. Spring 2019.

Co-organizer with Eric Detweiler, Jon Stone, and Joel Overall. “Symposium on Sound, Rhetoric, and
Writing.” The first national symposium on sound in the field of rhetoric and composition. Nashville and
Murfreesboro, TN. Sept 7-8, 2018.

Judge. Rhetoric Society of America Dissertation Award. Spring 2017 and 2018.

Co-leader with Jon Stone and Eric Detweiler. “Sound” Special Interest Group. Conference on College
Composition and Communication. March 2018; Co-leader with Jon Stone. March 2017.

Judge. Richard Ohmann Award for Outstanding Article in College English. Summer 2016.

University of Virginia

Graduate Committee. English Department. 2021–2022.

Learning Management System Project Steering Committee. University-wide project. 2021–2022.

Subcommittee for Curriculum. Writing and Rhetoric Program. 2021–2022.

Co-chair. Pedagogy Committee. Writing and Rhetoric Program. 2021.

Organizer. Whiteness Studies and Antiracism Pedagogy Group. Writing and Rhetoric Program. 2020–
2022.

Faculty Advisor for Lower-Division Students. 2020–2022.

Member. Pedagogy Committee. Writing and Rhetoric Program. 2020–2021.

Member. Search Committee for Director of Writing and Rhetoric Program. 2021.

Participant. Allies in the Academy. Graduate student mentoring program. 2018–2019.

Member. Curriculum Committee. Writing and Rhetoric Program. 2016–2019.

Member. Hiring Committee. Writing and Rhetoric Program. 2016–2019.

Professional Affiliations

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)

Rhetoric Society of America (RSA)
Modern Language Association (MLA)
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Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC)

Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC)