Ehren Pflugfelder

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Ehren Pflugfelder

Associate Professor
School of Writing, Literature & Film

Moreland Hall 212
2550 SW Jefferson Way
Corvallis, OR 97331
United States

Curriculum Vitae
Credentials
PhD, Purdue University (2012)
MA, Case Western Reserve University (2005)
BSE, Slippery Rock University (2001)
Office Hours
Fall, 2023: Tuesdays, 2-3PM
Research/Career Interests

Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder is an Associate Professor of technical and scientific writing in the school of Writing, Literature, and Film at Oregon State University where he teaches courses in a range of topics, including technical writing, science and environmental writing, writing pedagogy, graduate STEM writing, and rhetoric theory. He's mostly focused on research in technical and professional communication, environmental rhetoric, the rhetoric of science and scientific writing; rhetoric and risk; and animal rhetorics. His forst book, Communicating Mobility and Technology: A Material Rhetoric for Persuasive Transportation, came out in 2017 through Routledge and won the 2018 CCCC best book in technical or scientific communication. His second book, Geoengineering, Persuasion & the Climate CrisisA Geologic Rhetoric has recently come out from The University of Alabama Press. He came to OSU with a PhD in rhetoric and composition, with a focus in technical writing, from Purdue University, an MA from Case Western Reserve University, and a BSE from Slippery Rock University. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, but now calling Corvallis, OR home, he likes biking, being in nature, baking bread, brewing beer, and petrichor.

Courses Taught
  • WR 599: Composition Pedagogy
  • WR 573: Thesis & Dissertation Writing
  • WR 493/593: History of Rhetoric
  • WR 497/597: Digital Literacy and Culture
  • WR 585: Contemporary Rhetoric Theory
  • ENG 485/585: Introduction to Digital Humanities
  • WR 466/566: Advanced Technical Writing
  • WR 462/562: Environmental Writing
  • WR 435: Scientific, Technical, and Professional Communication Capstone
  • WR 411/511: The Teaching of Writing
  • WR 362: Science Writing
  • WR 327: Technical Writing
  • WR 323: Advanced Composition
  • WR 303: Writing for the Web
  • WR 214: Writing for Business

 

Monographs

Geoengineering, Persuasion, and the Climate Crisis: A Geologic Rhetoric. The University of Alabama Press, 2023.

Communicating Technology and Mobility: A Material Rhetoric for Transportation. Routledge, 2017. [Winner of the 2018 College Composition & Communication best book in Technical or Scientific Communication]

Recent Peer-Reviewed Articles and Chapters

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut, Amidon, Timothy R., Sackey, Donnie Johnson, and Richards, Daniel P. “Expanding the Scope and Scale of Risk in TPC: Water Access and the Colorado River Basin.” Technical Communication Quarterly 32, no. 3 (2023): 224-241.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut, Goodfriend, Olivia, and Baker, Carlee. “The Use and Misuse of “Indigenous Science”.” Technical Communication Quarterly 32, no. 3 (2023): 276-286. 

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Technical Communication and Geoengineering Standards: The Case of ISO 14082.” In SIGDOC ‘22 Proceedings of the 40th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication. Boston, MA (October 4-6, 2022): 1-6.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut, and Kelly, Shannon. “Listening Otherwise: Arboreal Rhetorics and Tree-Human Relations.” In Decolonial Conversations in Posthuman & New Material Rhetorics, edited by Jennifer Clary-Lemon and David M. Grant, 67-91. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 2022.  

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Evidence Engines: Common Rhetorical Features of Fraudulent Academic Journal Articles.” Written Communication 39, no. 2 (2022): 303-331. 

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut, and Mahmou-Werndli, Alex. “Impacts of Genre and Access on Science Discussions: The New Reddit Journal of Science.” JCOM 20, no. 5 (2021): 1-21.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut, Sylvester, Ruth E., Yerace, Marisa, and Fuller, Matthew. “Making the Midcentury, Modern.” Rhetoric Review 40, no. 1 (2021): 30-45. 

Amidon, Timothy R., Nielsen, Alex C., Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut, Richards, Daniel P., Stephens, Sonia H. “Visual Risk Literacy in “Flatten the Curve” COVID-19 Visualizations.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 31, no. 1 (2021): 101-109.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Risk Selfies and Nonrational Environmental Communication.” Communication Design Quarterly 7, no. 1 (2019): 73-84.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Persuasive Relations: Autonomous Vehicles and Gender.” Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies 8, no. 1 (2018).

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “The Role of Metis in Revising Automotive Recall Letters.” In Posthuman Praxis in Technical Communication, eds. Kristen R. Moore and Daniel Richards. New York: Routledge, 2018.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Failure Matters: Conflicting Techne in a High-Tech Case.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 48, no. 1 (2018): 31-52.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Methodologies: Design Studies and Techne.” In Rhetoric and Experience Architecture, eds. Liza Potts and Michael J. Salvo, 166-183. Anderson, SC, Parlor Press, 2017.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Explain Like I’m Five: Technical Descriptions in the Wild.” Technical Communication Quarterly 26, no. 1 (2017): 25-41.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. "Rhetoric’s New Materialism: from Micro-Rhetoric to Microbrew.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 45, no. 5 (2015): 441-461.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Is No one at the Wheel?: Nonhuman Agency and Agentive Movement” In Thinking with Bruno Latour in Rhetoric and Composition, edited by Paul Lynch and Nathaniel Rivers, 176-200. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Cell Phones, Networks, and Power: Documenting Cell Phone Literacies.” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy 19, no. 2 (2015).

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. ““Running with the Big Dogs”: The Rhetoric of Fan Identity in a Postmodern NASCAR.” In Motorsports and American Culture: From Demolition Derbies to NASCAR, eds. Mark D. Howell and John D. Miller, 87-102. Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Big Data, Big Questions.” Communication Design Quarterly 1, no. 4 (2013): 18-22.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “The Minimalist Approach to Online Instructional Videos.” Technical Communication 60, no. 2 (2013): 131-146.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Translucency, Coursepacks, and the Post-Historical University: An Investigation into Pedagogical Things.” College English 74, no. 3 (2012): 247-267. 

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. “Sustaining Knowledge Work in Student Engineering Clubs.” Proceedings of The International Professional Communication ConferenceIEEE International Cincinnati, OH (October, 2011): 1-7.

Moore, Kristen, and Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder. “On Being Bored and Lost (in Virtuality).” Learning, Media and Technology 35, no. 2 (2010): 249-253.

Salvo, Michael J., Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder, and Joshua Prenosil. “The Children of Aramis.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 40, no. 3 (2010): 245-263.

Pflugfelder, Ehren Helmut. Something Less than a Driver: Toward an Understanding of Gendered Bodies in Motorsport.” Journal of Sport & Social Issues 33, no. 4 (2009): 411-426.