Sara L. McKinnon, Ph.D.
Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2008  Office: Room 237	Visiting Assistant Professor Communication

Research:
My scholarship focuses on the communicative experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in the United States with particular interest in questions of subjectivity, agency and belonging among these groups. In past research, this focus led me to investigate the ways refugees who resettle in the United States either construct cultural identity as a group or how non-refugee individuals and groups ascribe identities to refugees. More recently, I have examined the rhetorical construction of gender and gender-based persecution in claims to U.S. political asylum. While I have many theoretical homes, much of my scholarship is informed by intersectional and transnational feminist theories, post-structural theories and critical theories of globalization.

Sample Publications:

• McKinnon, S.L. (2009). Citizenship and the performance of credibility: Audiencing gender-based asylum seekers in U.S. immigration courts. Text and Performance Quarterly, 29, 205-221.

• McKinnon, S.L. (2009). The role of speech in seeking asylum in the U.S. Communication Currents, August, communicationcurrents.com

• McKinnon, S.L. (forthcoming). "Bringing new hope and new life": The rhetoric of faith-based refugee resettlement agencies. Howard Journal of Communications.

• McKinnon, S.L. (forthcoming). (In)hospitable publics: Theorizing the conditions of access to U.S. publics. In D. C. Brouwer & R. Asen (Eds.), Public modalities. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.

• McKinnon, S.L. (2008). Unsettling resettlement: Problematizing “Lost Boys of Sudan” resettlement and identity. Western Journal of Communication, 72, 397-414.

• McKinnon, S. (2007). Mirrored asylum: Reflections on naming, home and subjectivity in Ireland. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, 3, 1-29. liminalities.net.

Teaching:
For me, the combination of challenging readings, thought-provoking conversations, self-reflexivity, and a little silliness are the ingredients for a great learning environment.

Methods:
My research is primarily rhetorical and qualitative, utilizing research methods including textual analysis, participant observation, in-depth interviewing, and performance.

Authors:
Marge Piercy, Audre Lorde, Julia Alvarez, Aiwha Ong, Chandra Mohanty, Kimberle Crenshaw, M. Jacqui Alexander, Sherene Razack, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, & Lauren Berlant