I’m Deidre Anne Evans Garriott. I’m originally from Charleston, SC, but I’ve lived up and down the Atlantic coast. I earned my B.A. in Liberal Studies, with a concentration in English, and an M.A. in English (medieval literature) at Florida Gulf Coast University. I received my Ph.D. in English, concentration in rhetoric, writing, and linguistics, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I’m an assistant professor in the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies and the coordinator of the Writing Center at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA. I teach first-year writing (ERH 101 and 102), Rhetorical Traditions I and II (ERH 201 and 202), Civic Discourse, and, sometimes, British Literary Traditions.

As a scholar, I investigate sites of public memory and the ways their physical constructions represent (or don’t) diversity in the country we currently call the United States. In layman’s terms, I go to historical parks and museums. I study exhibits and recreations to understand how these sites are creating the story of U.S.

In addition to studying the rhetoric of public memory, I also study popular culture as a rhetorical construct. I co-edited and contributed to Space and Place in the Hunger Games: New Readings of the Trilogy (McFarland, 2013), and I have a chapter in a forthcoming collection on Disney fan culture.

When I’m not researching public memory and popular culture, I’m watching Netflix and reading. I love anything Marvel (except for Iron Fist). I also have three dogs and two cats, whom I love to photograph and spoil. You will see evidence of them all over my clothes.

You can contact me at deidre.anne.evans@gmail.com and find me on Twitter (all views are my own).