About Me
Dr. Reed Van Schenck is Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing and Communication at IE University in Madrid. They received their PhD in Communication from the University of Pittsburgh.
About My Research
My research examines reactionary rhetoric, digital media, and cultural studies. I am fascinated by how ultra-conservative, fascist, and ethno-nationalist ideas foment through Internet subcultures and the platforms that host them. Using humanistic methods like discourse analysis, online ethnography, and rhetorical criticism, I investigate the media practices that beget and encourage white supremacist, misogynistic, and antisemitic networks.
I recently completed my dissertation: The Reactionary Web: Digital Media and the Reconstitution of White Supremacist Networks after the ‘Alt-Right.’ I explain how the Alt-Right, a reactionary digital network most active from 2014-2017, emerged as a result of the exploitative infrastructure of the Internet. By treating its websites, apps, and communities as artifacts for criticism, I explicate their demise after the “Unite the Right” rally and illustrate how some of its constituent factions have persisted and evolved during a shift toward regulating digital platforms.
About My Pedagogy
I was born and raised in Virginia Beach, in the United States, by two public middle school teachers. Nobody else is more qualified to pass down the most important quality for effective teaching: listening to your students. My students have praised my critical approach to pedagogy which prioritizes cultivating confidence for creative knowledge production. I believe in process-over-product which I practice through dialogic communication of course objecties and balance between activities, lecture, and discussion.
Besides classroom teaching, I possess years of pedagogical experience as a debate coach at the middle school, high school, and college levels in the United States. I was recognized as an excellent instructor in Applied Persuasion with the Teddy Albiniak Award at the University of Texas at Austin in 2022. Whether we meet in the classroom or the squad room, my students have gone on to speak at the National Eating Disorder Awareness walk and to compete at the highest levels of intercollegiate debate.
About My Advocacy
As one of very few transgender students during my time at Wake Forest, I developed a firm committment to cultivating practices which meaningfully improve the lives of marginalized people in higher education. While in North Carolina, I facilitated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workshops for both students and faculty on issues of gender and sexuality, and I advised policy development to protect students against predatory anti-trans legislation. During my graduate appointment, I have continued centering principles of DEI in my service on student self-governing organizations and conference organizing committees.
Although I love to speak at academic conferences, my truest love is public speaking. I bring organic experience as an activist who has spoken at such events as March for Our Lives and North Carolina Trans Pride as well as countless occasions, formal and informal. On campus, off campus, or on a video-conference, I would love to share my passion and perspective at your next event!