Jennifer Sano-Franchini

Gaziano Family Legacy Professor and Associate Professor of English

Jennifer Sano-Franchini researches the linkages between culture, meaning-making, power, and technology. She has published on a range of topics including 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 Quarterly; and Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization, 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.

Professor Sano-Franchini has held leadership roles in national professional organizations, including the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the Modern Language Association (MLA), and the Consortium of Doctoral Programs in Rhetoric and Composition (CDPRC). She co-chaired the 2022 Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) Virtual Conference with Donnie Johnson Sackey and Kristen Moore, and she is the incoming elected Assistant Chair of the CCCC, a four-year position through which she will rotate into the roles of Associate/Program Chair, Chair, and Immediate Past Chair. She is also co-leading a workshop at the 2023 Rhetoric Society of American Summer Institute on Asian American Feminist Rhetorics and Intersectional Labor Politics.

She 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, Jones, André M., Ganguly, Priyanka, Robertson, Chloe J., Shafer, Luana J., Wagnon, Marti, Awotayo, Olayemi, and Bronson, Megan. (Forthcoming, 2023; pre-print available online). “Slack, Social Justice, and Online Technical Communication Pedagogy.” Technical Communication Quarterly. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10572252.2022.2085809

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer, Johnson, Nathan R., and Lane, Liz. (Forthcoming, 2023). “Teaching bell hooks in Technical and Professional Communication.” College English.

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (Forthcoming, 2022). “Asian American Rhetoric and Representation, or, Why Everyone (Including Non-Asians) Should Learn about Asian American Rhetoric.” Course Design. Composition Studies.

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (Forthcoming, 2022). “Ideation.” In Jason Tham (Ed.), Keywords in Design Thinking: A Primer for Makers, Designers, and Technical Communicators. WAC Clearinghouse.

Baniya, Sweta, Edwards, Jessica, Sano-Franchini, Jennifer, and Walwema, Josephine. (2022). “Revisiting SL in Technical and Professional Communication through a Social Justice Framework: Findings from Survey Research.” IEEE Transactions in Professional Communication, 65(3), 353–369. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9809790

Fernandes, Maggie, Homer, Matthew, and Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (2022). “Sneaky Rhetorics, Habitual Media, and the Affective Politics of Lurking on Facebook.” Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture 33. https://www.enculturation.net/sneaky_rhetorics_habitual_media_and_the_affective_politics_of_lurking

Monberg, Terese Guinsatao, Sano-Franchini, Jennifer, and Yoon, K. Hyoejin. (2022). “Asian/American Movements Through the Pandemic and Through the Discipline Before, During, and After COVID-19.” Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric, 21(1). https://reflectionsjournal.net/2022/02/editors-introduction-finding-humanity-and-community-in-pandemic-scholarship-2/

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (2022). Foreword. Humanities Instruction and Administration in a Global Pandemic: Transformative Insights for the Future of Liberal Arts [Themed issue]. Journal of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, 22(1). Translations in Thai and English. https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/liberalarts/article/view/257920/172166

Carter-Tod, Sheila and Sano-Franchini, Jennifer (Eds.). (2021). Black Lives Matter and Anti-Racist Projects in Writing Program Administration [Special issue]. WPA: Writing Program Administration, 44(3). https://wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/asset_manager/get_file/604389?ver=2

Sano-Franchini, Jennifer, Fernandes, Maggie, Adams, Jonathan, and Kim, Michelle. (2021). “Sounding Out in a PWI: Circulating Asian American Sound for Institutional Change.” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, 26(1). https://praxis.technorhetoric.net/tiki-index.php?page=PraxisWiki:_:Sounding%20Out

Sánchez, Fernando, Dorpenyo, Isidore, and Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. (2021). “Election Technologies as a Tool for Cultivating Civic Literacies in Technical Communication: A Case of The Redistricting Game.” In Rebecca Walton and Godwin Agboka, (Eds.), Equipping Technical Communicators for Social Justice Work: Theories, Methodologies, and Topics (pp. 197–213). Utah State University Press.

Recent Invited Talks:

Inclusive Pedagogy in Technical and Professional Writing. Rowan University. Mar 2022.

Dimensions of Asian and Asian American Rhetorics. Program in Writing and Rhetoric, with the Asian American Activities Center. Stanford University. Feb 2022.

Gender, Sexuality, and the Model Minority Myth. Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. Webinar. Jan 2022.

Asian American Rhetoric, Anti-Asian Violence, and the Teaching of Writing. English Department, Tulane University. Apr 2021.

Breaking Stereotypes: Asian Pacific Female Professionals in Academia. Featured Panel. College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Sam Houston State University. Apr 2021.

Programmatic Efforts to Address Anti-Blackness in Technical and Professional Writing. Teaching Writing Now: Diversity and Social Justice in the Writing Classroom — A Virtual Symposium. Texas A&M University. Feb 2021.