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Jennifer Sano-Franchini

Gaziano Family Legacy Professor and Associate Professor of English

Curriculum Vitae

Jennifer Sano-Franchini researches the linkages between culture, meaning-making, power, and technology. She has published widely on a range of topics including the affective politics of Facebook’s user interface design, Asian American sonic rhetorics, and emotional labor on the academic job search in journals such as College Composition and Communication, Technical Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Kairos, and edited collections including Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work, Rhetoric and Experience Architecture, and Rhetoric and the Digital Humanities. She teaches courses on professional writing theory, multimedia writing, cultural rhetorics, and feminist interaction design. She is one of the creators of Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies and has given invited talks at universities across the country on the basis of this work. 

Professor Sano-Franchini has held leadership roles in several national professional organizations in the discipline of rhetoric, composition, and writing studies including the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and the Consortium of Doctoral Programs in Rhetoric and Composition. She co-organized the 2022 Association for Teachers of Technical Writing Virtual Conference and she served as program chair of the 2024 CCCC Annual Convention in Spokane. She currently serves as Immediate Past Chair of the CCCC and is a Co-Chair of the CCCC Special Committee on Generative AI in College Composition and Writing Studies.

Sano-Franchini completed her BA and MA degrees in English at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and her PhD in Rhetoric and Writing at Michigan State University. She also has seven years of previous industry experience as a document designer and professional writer. 

Specializations 

  • technical communication
  • cultural politics of user experience (UX) design
  • cultural and digital rhetorics
  • Asian American rhetoric
  • the rhetorical work of institutions

Recent Publications

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (2026). “What’s ‘Critical’ about ‘Critical AI’? A Recommitment to Humanistic Inquiry in the Ostensible March to Hyper-Automation. The Proceedings of the Computers and Writing Conference, 2025. WAC Clearinghouse, pp. 5–18.

​​Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (2026). “Mapping Core Leadership Competencies through Next-Gen Stories: Learning from Cultural Integration and Labor Advocacy Across Institutional Roles.” In Charles McMartin, Eric A. House, Sonia C. Arellano, and Thomas Miller (Eds.), Next-Gen Perspectives on Leadership: Coalitional Strategies for Launching Careers, Renewing Curricula, and Defending Democracy. Utah State University Press, pp. 99–112.

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (2026). “Making Academic Conferencing Meaningful Across Modalities: Lessons from Documentarians.” Afterword. In Bump Halbritter, Julie Lindquist, and Bree Straayer (Eds.), Recollections from our Common Places: 4C21–23 Documentarian Tales. National Council of Teachers of English; WAC Clearinghouse, pp. 181–190.

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (2025). “Timely, (Un)Disciplinary, and Solutions-Oriented: The Affective Politics of Writing Technologies and Where We Might Go From Here.” College Composition and Communication, 77.2. pp. 348–368.

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (2025). “2025 CCCC Chair’s Letter.” College Composition and Communication, 77.2. pp. 370–389.

Walwema, Josephine, Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Jessica Edwards, and Sweta Baniya. (2025). “Social Justice and Intercultural Issues in Service-Learning Pedagogy: An Empirical Study.” Programmatic Perspectives, 16.1. 103–133.

Upcoming and Recent Invited Speaking Engagements

Refusing Generative AI: A Critique of Rhetorical Commonplaces about “AI” in Education. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2026.

Generative AI Refusal as Feminists Praxis. Montgomery College & Frederick Community College, Apr 2026.

Refusal as Pedagogical Possibility. San Diego State University, Apr 2026.

Writing, Technologies and Pedagogies: With, Against, and Beyond AI. Stanford University, Apr 2026.

Generative AI Refusal in Writing Studies: Where We’ve Come From and Where We Can Go, with Maggie Fernandes & Megan McIntyre. Lewis University, Mar 2026.

Doubting, Believing, Refusing: Unpacking Interpretive Frameworks for Making Sense of Generative AI in Writing Across the Curriculum. AI & Writing Across the Curriculum: Doubting and Believing Symposium Keynote. University of Denver, Feb 2026. 

Refusing Generative AI in College Writing Instruction, with Maggie Fernandes and Megan McIntyre. University of Maryland Baltimore County, Feb 2026.

Refusing Generative AI in the Writing Center, with Maggie Fernandes and Megan McIntyre. Lewis University, Feb 2026.

Generative AI Refusal as Feminist Methodology, with Maggie Fernandes and Megan McIntyre. Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. Cheryl Glenn Advancing the Agenda Webinar, Nov 2025.

What Can Writing Studies Teach Us About Generative AI? A Recommitment to Humanistic Inquiry in Hyper-Automated Times. SUNY Albany, Oct 2025.

On Generative AI Refusal: A Recommitment to Humanistic Inquiry in Hyper-Automated Times. University of Texas at Austin, Sep 2025.

What’s Critical about Critical Interface Analysis? A Recommitment to Humanistic Inquiry in the March to Hyper-Automation. Keynote Speaker. Computers and Writing Conference. Athens, GA, May 2025.

Unpacking Generative AI Refusal in Higher Education, with Maggie Fernandes and Megan McIntyre. Huckin Distinguished Lecture. University of Utah, Apr 2025.

Refusing Generative AI, with Maggie Fernandes and Megan McIntyre. Symposium on AI Resistance. William and Mary College, Apr 2025.

Refusing Generative AI: Considerations for Writing Colleagues. Writing Colleagues Welcome Reception Keynote. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Feb 2025.

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