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My research publications draw on rhetorical genre studies and comparative rhetoric to explore forms of encounter and ways in which rhetors, as "agents of integration" (Nowacek, 2011), navigate the composition of assemblages (Preston, 2015; Yancey and McElroy, 2017).
06_Leon_BR (1).pdfReview of Global Rhetorical Traditions, edited by Tarez Samra Graban and Hui Wu. Journal for the History of Rhetoric, vol. 27, no. 3, 2024, pp. 412-416.
This book review shows my continued engagement with comparative rhetorics. In this review, I approach this new anthology to highlight key translations and movement forward in making the history of non-Western rhetorics more accessible to students. While ideally students will wrestle with full texts, anthologies serve an important function in ensuring both increased awareness of texts and fresh translations that bring non-Western rhetorical terminologies into focus.
“Counter Arguments.” Writing Commons: The Encyclopedia for Writers, Researchers, and Knowledge Makers, January 2023.
This Writing Commons article draws on my own experience teaching and studying counterarguments as another pedagogical application of my dissertation research. I treat counterarguments both as sentence-level and passage-level strategy of response. I present a novel way of arguing against different parts of a Toulmin argument as well as address ethical implications of addressing counterarguments fairly and using them to nuance and add distinction to our own arguments. My article also references excellent resources for writers to learn more about counterarguments.
leon-aaa-contribution.pdf“Beyond Transition Words.” Writing Spaces, Assignments and Activities Archive, August 2022.
In my studies of essay structure for my dissertation, I have found that while transition words can be useful, they are only one of the many ways that writers add coherence to their writing. This activity connects theory to practice by inviting students to develop their own understandings of coherence by looking beyond transition words. Following Brian Jackson (Teaching Mindful Writers, 2020), I believe that it is important for students to first notice, then name, then practice techniques they identify in model texts. For this reason, I make it a point to design this assignment so that the focus is on noticing and analysis rather than direct instruction (which can come later).
Review of Style and the Future of Composition Studies, edited by Paul Butler, Brian Ray, and Star Medzerian Vanguri. Composition Studies, vol. 49, no.3, 2021, pp. 200-203.
Much of my work on arrangement is indebted to work done to recuperate the study of style in composition. From a writing program administration perspective, I'm also interested in developments in writing threshold concepts scholarship. In this review, I aim to bring scholars in both fields into more sustained conversation with one another. I also suggest ways to thematically reorganize the collection to also highlight chapters that discuss social and linguistic justice.
Review of Style and the Future of Composition Studies.pdfAccommodation, Decorum, and Disputatio.pdf"Accommodation, Decorum, and Disputatio: Matteo Ricci's The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven as a Renaissance Humanist Disputation." Masters Thesis.
My masters thesis is an example of my work in comparative rhetoric. In this project, I situate Matteo Ricci, SJ's The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven relative to the greater history of disputation and the rhetoricization of disputation. I also begin to address the question of Ricci's engagement with Chinese rhetoric. My current work on Ricci's encounter with Chinese rhetoric aims to further explore how Ricci engages with Chinese traditions of argumentation more broadly.
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