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K.J. Rawson standing against a blue exterior wall covered in large black dots

Associate Professor of English and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Co-Director of NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks

K.J. Rawson works at the intersections of the Digital Humanities and Rhetoric, LGBTQ+, and Feminist Studies. Focusing on archives as key sites of cultural power, he studies the rhetorical work of queer and transgender archival collections in brick-and-mortar and digital spaces. Rawson is founder and director of the Digital Transgender Archive, an award-winning collection of trans-related historical materials, and he chairs the editorial board of the Homosaurus, an LGBTQ+ linked data vocabulary.

View CV
  • 2022 Lavender Rhino Award, The History Project
  • 2022–2025 CLIR Grant, “‘Y’all Better Quiet Down:’ Trans BIPOC Digitization Initiative”
  • 2021-2022 Northeastern University Tier 1 Grant, “Establishing the Homosaurus at Northeastern University”
  • 2021-2022 Faculty Fellowship, Northeastern University Humanities Center
  • Kneupper Award for Best Essay Published in RSQ in 2018
  • American Council of Learned Societies Digital Extension Grant, “Developing the Digital Transgender Archive” (2017–2018)
  • American Council of Learned Societies Digital Innovation Fellowship, “Building the Digital Transgender Archive” (2015–2016)

Since 2012:

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Course catalog
  • Introduces students to major concepts, traditions, and issues in rhetorical studies. Explores the range of ways that people persuade others to change their minds or take action; the relationship among language, truth, and knowledge; and the role of language in shaping identity and culture. Focuses on recognized thinkers from the Western tradition as well as writers that challenge the rhetorical canon. Emphasizes contemporary and interdisciplinary approaches to rhetoric interested in the entire range of rhetorical artifacts, with primary attention given to methods of critically investigating texts and their effects.

  • Delve into rich, quirky, and campy queer archives! From ‘zines to buttons, photographs to high heels, this course invites you to sift through queer pasts as we consider how those pasts are compiled, sorted, and opened up for our use. This course counts towards the WGSS minor.