ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heidi Y. Lawrence is an Associate Professor of English at George Mason University
Heidi Y. Lawrence is an Associate Professor of English at George Mason University. She teach courses primarily in rhetoric and writing and directs the Master of Arts concentration in Professional Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) at Mason. She has a PhD from Virginia Tech, an MA from George Mason University, and a BA from Mary Washington College.
She began research into vaccine controversy by working with the Vaccination Research Group (VRG) at Virginia Tech in 2010. She completed a dissertation on rhetorics of vaccine controversy in 2013. In addition to Vaccine Rhetorics, her work on vaccination has appeared in a wide range of journals, including the Journal of the Medical Humanities, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, and Critical Public Health. You can see a full listing of her publications in popular and peer-reviewed locations on the News and Publications tab on this site. Dr. Lawrence's work applies the tools of rhetoric to public arguments about vaccines, with a goal of elucidating why people are persuaded to believe the things they believe about vaccines, medicine, and health. Her work offers suggestions for theories, methods, and practices that can inform new, rhetorically informed persuasive approaches to vaccination practice and policy, with a goal of achieving more understanding, deliberative discursive outcomes. |