Lehigh Logo
Department of

English

Linderman Library Rotunda stained glass dome
Lehigh shield

Isabelle Karleskint

Teaching Assistant Professor

isk224@lehigh.edu
0035 - Drown Hall
Education:

PhD, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2023

MA, University of Central Florida, 2019

HBA, University of Toronto, 2014

Explore this Profile
×

Additional Interests

  • Camp
  • Popular culture
  • Video gaming

Research Statement

Isabelle Karleskint researches the intersections of popular culture, rhetorical theory, camp, digital technologies, queer studies, and writing pedagogy. Dr. Karleskint’s doctoral dissertation centered on how queer, campy popular music icons ‘sell’ their style and their identities to their audiences, while also subverting the relationship between themselves, their audiences, and the broader social contexts. While this work used Jacques Derrida’s deconstructionist rhetorical theories, feminist and queer studies, and camp studies, her prior graduate research centers on how Kenneth Burke’s conception of rhetorical motives needs to be reconfigured in constrained, censored environments.

Dr. Karleskint has presented her rhetorical work at the Comparative Drama Conference and has a publication under review at The Journal of Popular Culture. She has presented her pedagogical research at PAMLA, CCCC, and NCPTW, and has an upcoming publication in Feminist Pedagogy. Dr. Karleskint continues exploring identity politics in media and in pedagogy, including camp and, moving forward, gaming studies. 

Biography

Isabelle Karleskint is a Teaching Assistant Professor of first-year writing. She has lived, studied, and taught along the East Coast. Dr. Karleskint grew up just outside of Toronto, Canada, and moved to Orlando, Florida for her graduate studies. She stayed in the area for the early part of her career before relocating to the Lehigh Valley.

Dr. Karleskint’s pedagogy and research are deeply entwined. Her scholarship focuses heavily on camp studies, particularly in reframing Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” in a digital, pop cultural space, and as a rhetorical strategy. Her dissertation work, supervised by Dr. Matthew Vetter, Dr. Mike Sell, and Dr. Rachel Ryerson, reconsiders the roles of campy icons as deconstructionists who both sell and subvert LGBTQIA+ culture. With her first-year writing students, Dr. Karleskint uses contemporary works, like Lady Gaga’s music videos, Key and Peele sketches, and Bo Burnham’s Inside to bridge students’ prior knowledge of the world with difficult theoretical concepts. She also uses video games in the classroom to help students explore identity, gamification, intertextuality, and discourse communities. In turn, Dr. Karleskint’s scholarship also focuses on pedagogy, particularly within challenging sociopolitical contexts.

Presentations:

  • Karleskint, Isabelle V. “‘Camp’-ing the Biography: Examining the Discursive Language of Rocketman and The Cher Show.” Comparative Drama Conference, Orlando, FL: April 2024.
  • Karleskint, Isabelle V. “Inclusive Writing Pedagogies: A Roundtable,” Pacific and Ancient Modern Language Association, Portland, OR: October 2023.
  • Karleskint, Isabelle V. “Black Widow: The Avengers and the End of Composition? (The Sequel),” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Spokane, WA: April 2021.
  • Tripp, Mary, Street, Rachel, and Lanthier, Isabelle V. “Crossing the Boundaries of Tutoring Identity: GTAs Tutoring First-Year Students Writing Research,” National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, Hofstra University: October 2017.

Upcoming publications:

  • Karleskint, Isabelle V. “Queering Composition Pedagogy: Camp-Informed Teaching Withing Florida’s Censorship. Feminist Pedagogy. Expected: October 2024.
  • Karleskint, Isabelle V. “‘You’s a Meme, You’s a Joke’: Parody, Camp, and Resistance in Lil Nas X’s MONTERO.” Journal of Popular Culture. Date TBD.