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.