Misti Yang is the Mellon Assistant Professor of the Public Communication of Science and Technology and teaches courses in the Communication of Science and Technology program. As a scholar of the rhetoric of technology, she is a critic and theorist of engineering cultures focused on the relationship between communication and ethical engineering practices, specifically the development of computational technologies and AI. To better understand the development of technology and its relationship to communities, her research traverses communication studies, science and technology studies (STS), history, and the digital humanities. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Philosophy and Rhetoric, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, and Rhetoric and Public Affairs. She is currently completing a book about Joseph Weizenbaum, who is often recognized as the creator of the first chatbot and is an early theorist of the rhetorical implications of artificial intelligence.

Education

Ph.D. University of Maryland, College Park, 2021

M.A. University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2016

B.A. Wellesley College, 2001

Representative Publications

Carter, Jonathan S. and Yang, Misti. “Sophie vs the Machine: Neo-Luddism as Response to Facebook’s Corruption of the General Intellect.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly. Forthcoming.

Yang, Misti. “Phantastic, Impressive Rhetoric.” Philosophy and Rhetoric, 54, no. 4 (2021): 374-396.

Salzano, Matthew, and Yang, Misti. “Going Off Scripts: Emotional Labor and Technoliberal Rhetoric.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, (2021): 1–14.

Yang, Misti. “Defending Cyberspace: Reexamining Security Metaphors in the Internet Era.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 23, no. 4 (Winter 2020): 707-733.

Yang, Misti. “Painful Conversations: Therapeutic Chatbots and Public Capacities.” Communication and the Public 5, no. 1-2 (March-June 2020): 35–44.

Pfister, Damien Smith and Misti Yang. “Five Theses on Technoliberalism and the Networked Public Sphere.” Communication and the Public 3, no. 3 (September 2018): 247–262.