Russell Kirkscey, Ph.D.

Russell Kirkscey
Assistant Professor of English and Technical and Professional Writing, School of Humanities
Program Coordinator, Minor in Technical and Professional Writing
Olmsted Building, W555J, W355J
777 W. Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, PA 17057 US
12:00 P.M. - 1:30 P.M. Tuesday-Thursday

Dr. Russell Kirkscey studies how and why people make decisions about health care. His focus is on shared decision-making, which involves equal participation between providers and patients in their discussions about treatment and management options. His research emphasizes bioethics, rhetorical analysis, qualitative studies, and communication theory to complement the quantitative studies of biomedical practitioners.

He has presented his research at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, National Communication Association Conference, Liberal Arts International Conference, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing Conference, and Discourses of Health, Medicine, and Society Symposium. His published work includes articles and reviews in Health Communication, Journal of Communication in Healthcare, Technical Communication Quarterly, Journal of Usability Studies, Women and Language, and Technical Communication.

He was a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow in Technical and Business Communication at Georgia Tech. He has also held professional teaching appointments at Texas Tech University, Texas State University, and Austin Community College. He has taught courses in technical communication, advanced composition, professional report writing, public speaking, communication leadership, and organizational communication.

  • Health and medical rhetoric
  • Professional and technical communication
  • Communication ethics
  • Rhetorical theory
  • Health information technology
  • Usability
  • Research methods
  • Capstone experiences

Kirkscey, R., & Attaluri, A. (2022). Student technical editors as writing consultants for mechanical engineering capstone design teams: A case study in interdisciplinary curriculum development. Programmatic Perspectives, 13(1), 33-60.

Kirkscey, R. (2022). Development and patient user experience of an mHealth decision aid app for osteoporosis. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 38(8), 707-718. DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2021.1965773

Kirkscey, R., Lewis, D., & Vale, J. (2022). Capstone influences and purposes. In C. Ketcham, T. Weaver, J. Moore (Eds.), Cultivating capstones: Designing high-quality culminating experiences for student learning. Stylus Publishing.

Kirkscey, R., Vale, J., Hill, J., & Weiss, J. (2021). Capstone experience purposes: An international, multidisciplinary study. Teaching & Learning Inquiry 9(2). 1-21.

Kirkscey, R. (2021). mHealth Apps for Older Adults: A method for development and user experience design (UX) evaluation. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 51(2), 199-217.

Kirkscey, R. (2019). Shifts and transpositions: An analysis of gateway documents for cancer genetic testing. Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, 2(4), 384-414.

Kirkscey, R. (2019). What technical communicators need to know about health and medical apps. Intercom. Special Issue on health and medical communication, 66(6), 18-20.

Kirkscey, R. (2018). Bioethical communication: Shared decision-making and relational empathy. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, (11)3, 164-174.

Kirkscey, R. (2018). Ethical communication. In A. Braziller & E. Kleinfeld (Eds.), WOVENText: Georgia Tech’s Bedford Book of Genres (3rd ed.). Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Kirkscey, R. (2017). Patient decision aids for prenatal genetic testing: Probability, embodiment, and problematic integration. Health Communication, 32(5), 568-577.

Cunningham, L., Kirkscey, R., Reynolds-Dyk, A., Small, N., Tran, C., & Tucker, V. (2015). Rhetorical grounding and an agile attitude: Complex systems, multi-genre testing, and service learning in UX. Journal of Usability Studies, 10(4), 182-194.

Kirkscey, R. (2012). Secondary school instructors’ perspectives on the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) with course content. American Secondary Education, 40(3), 17–33.

Kirkscey, R. (2011). The cycle of omission: Oppressive and oppressed gender roles in recent children’s literature. Texas Speech Communication Journal, 36(1), 94–107.

Kirkscey, R. (2007). Accommodating traditional African values and globalization: Narrative as argument in Wangari Maathai’s Nobel Prize lecture. Women and Language, 30(2), 12–17.

Ph.D. (Texas Tech University)

M.A. (Texas State University)

B.A. (Southwestern University)

ENGL 202C
ENGL 420
ENGL 470
AMST 479
AMST 590
ENGL 418
ENGL 471
ENGL 473
ENGL 480