This journal publishes studies of health and medicine that take a rhetorical perspective. Such studies combine rhetorical analysis with any number of other methodologies, including critical/cultural analysis, ethnography, qualitative analysis, and quantitative analysis. Rhetoric of Health & Medicine seeks to bring together humanities and social scientific research traditions in a rhetorically focused journal to allow scholars to build new interdisciplinary theories, methodologies, and insights that can impact our understanding of health, illness, healing, and wellness. 

Announcements

Reviewing for RHM--Overview and Tips

2023-10-23

Recently, the editing team held a "coffee chat" at the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Symposium. For that event, co-editor Kim Hensley Owens prepared this video , which offers an overview and tips for those interested in reviewing for the journal. 

Response to Racial Injustice

2020-06-17

The co-editors of RHM want to empahsize the journal's commitment in cultivating, sponsoring, publishing, and promoting scholarship that addresses racism and interlocking systems of oppression as public health (and/or other health or medical) issues. We welcome queries or submissions around these important issues.

Current Issue

Vol. 8 No. 4 (2025): Fall 2025

Published: 2025-12-09

Editors' Introduction

RHM's Community as a Source of Hope in Traumatic Times

Cathryn Molloy, Kim Hensley Owens, Fernando Sánchez

367–371

Abstract

Editors' Introduction to Volume 8 issue 4

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Research Articles

The Role of Image Restoration Strategies in the Jesse Gelsinger Case

Kenneth Zagacki, Andrew Binder

372–401

Abstract

We draw on William L. Benoit’s image repair theory to examine the case of Jesse Gelsinger, who died during a clinical trial testing the safety...

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Embodying Expertise

The Influence of Online Information in Health Decision Making

Shanna Cameron

402–433

Abstract

This article engages with rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM) scholarship on embodiment and expertise in online health communication to...

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The Constitution of Individual Rhetorical Agency in a Health Risk Situation

How an influencer is Putting AMR on the Agenda

Dorthea Roe, Jens E. Kjeldsen

434–465

Abstract

What makes societies see, acknowledge, and constitute an issue as a crisis which should be acted upon? We address this...

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Eyes are More than Cameras

The Rhetorical Infrastructure of Vision Care and Its Impact on Patients with Eye Movement Disorders

Brian Le Lay, Bill Keith

466–498

Abstract

This paper explores how an intellectual account that describes eyes as cameras shapes clinical practices of measurement and correction in vision...

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Book Reviews

Review of Fitter, Happier: The Eugenic Strain in Twentieth-Century Cancer Rhetoric. Lois Peters Agnew. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2024. 188 pages, $34.95 Paperback, $120 Hard-cover, $34.95 eBook. Publisher webpage: https://www.uapress.u

Kari Lundgren
Abstract

Fitter, Happier: The Eugenic Strain in Twentieth-Century Cancer Rhetoric. Lois Peters Agnew. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama...

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Review of Sex and the Planet: What Opt-In Reproduction Could Do for the Globe. Margaret Pabst Battin. The MIT Press, 2024. 264 pages, $35.00 paperback.

Sharmin Sumaiya Sarker
Abstract

Sex and the Planet: What Opt-In Reproduction Could Do for the Globe. Margaret Pabst Battin. The MIT Press, 2024. 264 pages, $35.00...

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