I am an Associate Professor of English at California State University, Chico (PhD, Indiana University, 2014), and I teach courses in academic writing, composition pedagogy, human rights rhetoric, and rhetorical studies, as well as supervise TAs and/or peer writing mentors. Additional teaching interests include women’s rhetorics and environmental rhetoric.


My research centers on political rhetoric, human rights, and digital advocacy. My book project, Rhetoric in the Time of Torture, argues for a renewed attention to the rhetorical dimensions of torture, in light of the U.S.’s post-9/11 reliance on heavy interrogation techniques. It brings together rhetorical theory, theories of temporality, and interrogational torture, with particular attention to the Torture Memos, Abu Ghraib, and digital human-rights rhetoric.










Contact info: Laura Sparks I ARTS 272 I California State University, Chico
                        LSparks [at] csuchico [dot] edu