My name is Kyle. I just received a Master’s in Rhetoric and Composition from Northern Arizona University. I also obtained a certificate in Women’s Studies, making me–to the best of my knowledge–the only man who has done so. I remain heavily involved as a community outreach person for the MARS Project (men against rape and sexism) at NAU. I go into classrooms and organize events around sexual violence and prevention.

I was currently hired on as an instructor in the English department. For this job: I teach two sections of freshmen composition and along with someone else, I run the campus writing center, teach a graduate class on the writing center, and run the graduate assistant orientations.

My current job is a year contract. I’ll have a teaching gig next summer, but by August, I’ll be out of ideas and thrown to the wolves. If you’ve got any ideas, let me know!

I write a montly column for The Noise that goes by the same name as this blog.

I turned in my master’s thesis in August. Here is the abstract. If you’re interested in reading the whole thing (95 pages), drop me a line.

POWER UNDER THE HOOD: PICKUP TRUCK ADVERTISING, HYPER-MASCULINITIES, AND DENIAL IN THE AGE OF ECOLOGICAL APOCALYPSE

In an effort to forge connections between rhetorical theory, masculinities, and the construction of the natural world, this study takes a critical look at the rhetoric of contemporary pickup truck advertising. Through the rhetoric of these advertisements, I expose patriarchal power structures that drive our culture’s attraction to power and control through relationships characterized by domination and subjugation of women, alternative masculinities, and the natural world. Chapter One will provide an overview of basic theories about advertising and the construction of gender roles. By utilizing scores of contemporary examples of pickup truck advertising, Chapter Two will focus on how the rhetoric of these advertisements reflects and reproduces the traits associated with the dominant masculine ideology—namely, power, dominance, and control—by identifying with technology and confining gender roles above meaningful relationships with other people and the natural world. Chapter Three analyzes the affects of the dominant masculine ideology as a performative act which helps to fuel homophobia, men’s violence against women, and the ongoing destruction of the natural world. In doing so, a brief critique of the contemporary discourse surrounding the issue of sustainability and “green” automobiles will be addressed alongside the rhetoric of the dominant masculine ideology.

Contact me with questions, comments, complaints, and quandaries….

kyle[at]undertheconcrete[dot]org
or on myspace