Daniel Ehrenfeld

Dan Ehrenfeld, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of English and Humanities. He studies digital rhetoric, writing in the public sphere, rhetorical circulation, persuasion, and writing pedagogy. He has taught courses in first-year writing, technical writing, developmental reading and writing, digital culture, and public sphere theory.
 

Dr. Ehrenfeld is currently working on a book titled The New Information Warriors: Rhetoric and Social Change in the Digital Age. This project examines the ways that social media users shape public consciousness about racial justice, disability, climate, anti-capitalism, gender and sexuality, and more. Through grounded theory analysis, the project demonstrates that these modern “information warriors” engage in trial-and-error strategic communication, testing and honing persuasion practices that come to resemble those pioneered by the communications professionals of the 20th century. While practices of “crowd swarming,” “memetic warfare,” and “personal branding” are often assumed to be inconsistent with democratic ideals, my research demonstrates that practices such as these are increasingly central to struggles for social change.

Dr. Ehrenfeld has been awarded UMass Amherst’s Walker Gibson Prize for the best graduate essay on a topic in Rhetoric and Composition, the Rhetoric Society of America's Michael Leff Award, the Conference on College Composition and Communication's Chairs' Memorial Scholarship, and the Rhetoric Society of America's Gerard Hauser Award for the best paper presented by a graduate student at its biennial conference.

Dr. Ehrenfeld's career demonstrates a decade-long commitment to culturally responsive education. In recent years, he has designed and enacted workshop-style, experiential pedagogies that center digital technologies. By asking students to investigate the communication landscapes of the modern social web—and by asking them to experiment with ways that they might leverage various genres and technologies to shape their relations with audiences beyond the classroom—his courses encourage the growth of efficacious, rhetorically-flexible writers.

More information about his work can be found at www.danehrenfeld.com

 
 

DEGREES
 

Ph.D	English (Rhetoric and Composition), UMass Amherst, 2018
MA	Education (Academic Instruction for English Language Learners and Diverse Student Populations), Loyola Marymount University, 2007

HONORS

2021
Susan Wells Award for Excellence in Reviewing, awarded by the journal Rhetoric of Health & Medicine for peer review contributions


PUBLICATIONS

Articles

• Dan Ehrenfeld, The Creation of an OER to Restore and Maintain a Writers’ Community at a Regional Public College, Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education, 2(1) 2023.
• Dan Ehrenfeld, ‘Sharing a World with Others’: Rhetoric’s Ecological Turn and the Transformation of the Networked Public Sphere., Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 50 2020.
• Dan Ehrenfeld, Aristotle's Chronos and the Politics of Time in Algorithmic Environments, The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics (forthcoming)

Chapters

• Dan Ehrenfeld, “The Generation and Uses of Chaos”: Rhetorical Invention as the Taming of a Wild Garden" in C. Iverson and D. Ehrenfeld (Eds.), Processes: Writing Across Academic Careers, Geneseo, NY: Milne Open Textbooks (2023).

Edited Volumes

• Dan Ehrenfeld, Associate Editor. Processes: Writing Across Academic Careers, Geneseo, NY: Milne Open Textbooks (2023).

PRESENTATIONS

Conferences

• Dan Ehrenfeld, “The Creation of an OER to Establish and Maintain a Writers' Community at a Regional Public College.” Paper presented to the SUNY OER Summit 2023, Remote on October 12, 2023.
• Dan Ehrenfeld, “The Creation of an OER to Establish and Maintain a Writers' Community at a Regional Public College.” Paper presented to the 35th Annual Textbook & Academic Authors Association 2023 Virtual Conference, Remote on June 10, 2023.
• Dan Ehrenfeld, ““Humanizing the Digital Swarm: Uncovering ‘Folk Theories’ of Rhetoric and Social Change in Algorithmic Environments".” Paper presented to the Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute, on May 27, 2023.
• Daniel Ehrenfeld, ““Studying the Trajectories of Algorithmically Entangled Writers”.” Panel presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, IL on February 16, 2023.
• Daniel Ehrenfeld, “The Making of an "Information Warrior": A Qualitative Study of Mass Persuasion on the Social Web.” Paper presented to the The Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Baltimore, MD on May 28, 2022.

Lectures & Seminars

• Daniel Ehrenfeld, Studying “Folk Theories” of Persuasion and Influence on the Social Web, Paper presented to the Dartmouth Writing Research Seminar, on July 31, 2021.

SERVICE

Committee Service

• Selection Committee for Chancellor's Excellence Awards for Faculty. Serving as member and secretary of this college-wide standing committee. September 1, 2023 - Present.
• Associate Editor. Processes: Writing Across Academic Careers, Geneseo, NY: Milne Open Textbooks (2023). This project was developed by the WID Publishing Subcommittee, a subcommittee that is part of the Writing in the Disciplines (WID) Committee, a college-wide standing committee. July 21, 2023 - Present.
• English and Humanities Curriculum Committee (member). Serving as a member of the English and Humanities Curriculum Committee, a departmental committee. September 17, 2021 - Present.
• EGL 101 Online Task Force (Member). Served on a task force that redesigned EGL 101 (Composition I: College Writing) for online contexts. This is a departmental subcommittee  December 8, 2020 - Present.
• WID Publishing Subcommittee (member). Serving on a subcommittee formed to develop publications related to Writing in the Disciplines (WID). Over the last two years, we developed Processes: Writing Across Academic Careers, an open educational resource (OER) published by SUNY Geneseo's "Milne Open Textbooks." It was published April 7, 2023. This subcommittee is under the umbrella of the WID committee, a campus-wide committee. December 6, 2020 - Present.
• EGL 102 Curriculum Revision Task Force (Member). I am serving on a task force exploring possible revisions to the EGL 102 curriculum. This is a departmental task force. December 1, 2020 - Present.
• Placement and Testing Committee (Member and Secretary). Serving as a member and secretary of the Placement and Testing Committee, a committee that redesigned the placement process for EGL 101 and EGL 097. This is a departmental committee. October 15, 2020 - Present.
• Composition Committee (Member). Serving as a member of the Composition Committee, a committee that oversees writing instruction at Farmingdale. This is a departmental committee. September 1, 2020 - Present.
• WID Committee (Member and Secretary). Serving as member and Secretary of the Writing in the Disciplines (WID) Committee, a committee that oversees writing across the disciplines at Farmingdale. This is a campus-wide committee. September 1, 2020 - Present.
• Visiting Scholars Task Force (Chair). I led the visiting scholars task force, a task force formed as part of the International Education Committee, a standing committee. This task force created a "travel guide" for scholars visiting the area from abroad.
• International Education Committee (member). I served as a member of this campus-wide standing committee, which plans international education programming across campus. September 1, 2021 - June 1, 2023.
• Workshop Leader - "A.I. and the Writing Assignment". With Christopher French, I co-led this workshop for the English and Humanities Department. The workshop was hosted by the Composition Committee. April 14, 2023.
• Speech and Writing Micro-credential Task Force (member). I served on a departmental task force that proposed the creation of a speech and writing micro-credential. This proposal was accepted. November 6, 2020 - May 17, 2021.
• Writing in the Disciplines (WID) Webinar (presenter). I presented at the Writing in the Disciplines (WID) Webinar “Giving Useful Feedback." My talk, titled "Responding to Student Writing: Research on 'Reader-Based' Feedback," shared research about various approaches to offering feedback on student writing. April 8, 2021.

Institutional Service

• Academic Advisor - The Department of Liberal Arts & Sciences. February 2, 2023 - Present.

Professional Service

• Reviewer. I have served as a reviewer for three journals: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, and Rhetoric Society Quarterly. September 1, 2020 - Present.

Community Service

• Job-Seeking Materials Workshop (Leader). Led a writing workshop at University of Connecticut Stamford. This workshop helped students develop job-seeking materials. March 10, 2021 - Present.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Scholarship

• Dartmouth Writing Research Seminar, (July 25, 2021 - August 8, 2021).
   

Teaching

• Discussion-Based Teaching, The Faculty Resource Network (FRN) at New York University (October 7, 2021).
• Remote B Training: Collaborate, (February 8, 2021 - February 8, 2021).
• Remote B Training: Panopto, (February 8, 2021 - February 8, 2021).
• Remote B Training: Remote Online Workshop, (February 2, 2021 - February 2, 2021).

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS

• Daniel Ehrenfeld The New Information Warriors: Rhetoric and Social Change in the Digital Age, January 30, 2021.
• Dan Ehrenfeld An Impressionable Age: Durational Persuasion and the Creation of a Left Pipeline,.