Curriculum Vitæ

Thinking through the thinking behind thinking.

As you no doubt have surmised, my name is Jake Cowan & I’m an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric in the Writing Studies program at Saint Mary’s College of California in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as sometimes a Lecturer in the College of Media & Design for Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland. My scholarship & teaching are situated at the intersection of (post)structuralist ideological criticism & social media ecology, with a driving interest in using psychoanalysis to articulate how modern communication technologies function to structure belief, subjectivity, & epistemology. My research ranges from pop music to politics to the rhetorical possibilities of posting, while I teach classes on effective writing, argumentation, professionalism, creativity, media theory, & personal relationships.

A digitally mediated version of my CV is below, while a more conventional unabridged copy is available to view & download as a PDF here.

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Jake Cowan, PhD

  • — PhD, English (Concentration: Rhetoric & Writing), The University of Texas at Austin, 2020

    — MA, Philosophy of Religion and Literature, The University of Chicago, 2011

    — BA, Religious Studies, St. Edward’s University, 2009

  • — Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, School of Liberal Arts, Saint Mary's College of California, 2020–Present

    — Visiting Lecturer, College of Arts, Media and Design, Mills College at Northeastern University, 2022–23

    — Assistant Instructor, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, The University of Texas at Austin, 2013–20

    — Assistant Director, Digital Writing and Research Lab, The University of Texas at Austin, 2016–18

    — Research Assistant, Divinity School, The University of Chicago, 2010–11

    — Teaching Assistant, Department of Religious and Theological Studies, St. Edward’s University, 2008–09

  • — “Rhetoric’s Unconscious: Freud, Burke, Lacan.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 57.2 (2024)

    — “The Constitutive Rhetoric of Late Nationalism: Imagined Communities after the Digital Revolution.”Rhetoric Review 40.2 (2021)

    — “Freudian Typos, Rhetorical Parapraxis, and the Psychopathology of Digital Life.” enculturation (2019)

    — “Autobituary: The Life and/as Death of David Bowie & the Specters from Mourning.” Miranda 17 (2018)

    — Rev. of Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence, by Timothy Morton. E3W Review of Books 18 (2018)

    — “Typographic Nationalism and the Banal Uniformity of Imagined Communities.” In Type Matters: The Rhetoricity of Letterforms, edited by Danielle Nicole DeVoss and C.S. Wyatt. Parlor Press, 2018.

    — “Topology and Psychoanalysis: Rhe-torically Restructuring the Subject.” In Topologies as Techniques for a Post-Critical Rhetoric, edited by Lynda Walsh and Casey Boyle. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

    — Rev. of The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, by José van Dijck. E3W Review of Books 15 (2015)

  • — “John Lennon, Revolution, & the Limits of Rhetoric.” Paper presented for the Beatles Subject Area at the 55th Popular Culture Association National Conference in New Orleans, April 16–19, 2025.

    — “Turn Off Your Mind, Relax, & Float Down Streaming Services: Hallucination, Cyberspace, & Dream Rhetoric.” Paper presented at LACKv at Otterbein University. March 13–15, 2025.

    — “Can Computers Persuade? Turing, AI, and Rhetorical Machinery.” Paper presented at the 21st Biennial Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Denver, Colorado. May 23–26, 2024.

    — “‘And Another Thing: I’m Not Mad’—Cyberspace & the Sinthome.” Paper presented at LACKiv: Lack by the Lake at the University of Vermont in Burlington. April 20–23, 2023.

    — “Beating Around the Bushisms: Parapraxes, Politics, and Perversion.” Paper presented at the Lacan: Clinic & Culture conference at Duquesne University. October 14–16, 2022.

    — “All Watched Over by Machines of Rhetorical Opportunity.” Paper presented at the 20th Biennial Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Baltimore, Maryland. May 26–29, 2022.

    — “Irresponsible Identities: Changing Who’s in Charge.” Paper presented at the 20th Biennial Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Baltimore, Maryland. May 26–29, 2022.

    — “Believing is Easy with Eyes Wide Shut: Kubrick and Conspiratorial Rhetoric.” Paper presented at Behind Eyes Wide Shut: A Symposium at the University of Arts London in conjunction with the Kubrick Archives. December 16–17, 2019.

    — “Towards a Pedagogy of Separation: Fake News and True Rhetoric.” Paper presented at LACKiii: Psychoanalysis and Separation at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. May 9–11, 2019.

    — “Dark Media Ecology.” Paper presented at the 2019 Margins Conference, sponsored by the English Department at Clemson University. March 8, 2019.

    — “Ambient Time and the Anachronism of Anticipation.” Paper presented at the 18th Biennial Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. May 30–June 3, 2018.

    — “I, Phone: Subjects on the Line.” Paper presented at the Extra-Human conference, hosted by the Comparative Literature department at the University of Texas at Austin. September 24, 2016.

    — "The Medium Always Arrives: Unconscious Extensions of Digital Technology." Paper presented at the 131st MLA Annual Convention in Austin, Texas. January 7–10, 2016.

    — "The Rhetorical Enigma: Turing, Tropes, and Technê.” Paper presented at the (dis)junctions: Strange Bedfellows conference, hosted by the English department at the University of California, Riverside. November 2–3, 2015.

    — “Getting Down to This Sick Tweet: Race, Pop Music, and Social Media.” Paper presented at the 14th Annual Sequels Symposium, sponsored by E3W at the University of Texas at Austin. April 9–10, 2015.

    — “Home Screens: Database, Nostalgia, and Metaphor in Digital Subjectivity.” Paper presented at the Home/Sickness conference, held by the American Studies department at the University of Texas at Austin. April 2–3, 2015.

    — “Jakobson’s Latter @phasia: Language Disturbances in the Digital Age.” Paper presented at the Concussions, Commotions, and Other Aesthetic Disorders conference, hosted by the English department at the University of Chicago. November 20–21, 2014.

    — “The Dialectic of the Director and the Automaton of the Auteur in Kubrick's AI.” Paper presented at the Reconceptualizing Narrative: Structures, Systems, Boundaries conference, held by the English department at Rice University, Houston, Texas. September 5–6, 2014.

    — “Text as Texts: Translating and Trimming Ulysses into Twitterature.” Paper presented at the What We Read: Materiality, Narrative, Text conference, hosted by the Comparative Literature department at the University of Texas at Austin. October 11, 2013.

  • — Saint Mary’s College of California Common Good Research Award. For the article, “The Constitutive Rhetoric of Late Nationalism: Imagined Communities after the Digital Revolution.” 2022.

    — James L. Kinneavy Prize for Scholarship in Rhetoric and Composition. For the article, “The Constitutive Rhetoric of Digital Nationalism: Imagined Communities After the Internet.” 2018.

    — Flash Fellowship. Digital Writing and Research Lab, the University of Texas at Austin. 2017–2018.

    — Graduate Student Professional Development Award. Digital Writing and Research Lab, the University of Texas at Austin. 2014–18.

    — Research Grant. The University of Chicago. 2011.

    — Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. The University of Chicago. 2010.

    — Goethe-Zertifikat B2. Goethe-Institute. 2008.

  • — Faculty Welfare Committee Member. Saint Mary’s College of California. 2024–25.

    — Writing Studies Committee Member. Saint Mary’s College of California. 2023–25.

    — Faculty Representative. Academic Senate, Saint Mary’s College of California. 2021–23.

    — Jan Term Committee Member. Saint Mary’s College of California. 2022–23.

    — Advisory Board. Center for Writing Across the Curriculum, Saint Mary’s College of California. 2021–22.

    — Core Curriculum Working Group Member. Saint Mary’s College of California. 2021–22.

    — Faculty Advisor. American Marketing Association Club, Saint Mary’s College of California. 2021–22.

    — Assistant Director. Digital Writing and Research Lab, the University of Texas at Austin. 2016–18.

    — Co-President. Rhetoric Society of America, University of Texas at Austin Chapter. 2015–17.

    — Co-President. Eunoia Society, Department of Rhetoric and Writing with the Department of Communication Studies, the University of Texas at Austin. 2015–17.

    — Project Member. Multimodal Writing: Typography, Digital Writing and Research Lab, the University of Texas at Austin. 2015.

    — Project Leader. Excitable Media, Digital Writing and Research Lab, the University of Texas at Austin. 2014–15.

    — First-Year Forum Committee. The Department of Rhetoric and Writing, the University of Texas at Austin. 2013–14.