Elena Kalodner-Martin, PhD '24, has received the 2025 Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC) Presidents Dissertation Award for “Medical Evidence, Expertise, and Experiential Knowledge: A Study of Patients’ Communication Practices on Social Media.”
The award is given to a recently completed doctoral dissertation that makes an outstanding contribution to understanding of feminist histories, theories, and pedagogies of rhetoric and composition.
The CFSHRC says that Kalodner-Martin's dissertation "furthers conversations around ‘coalition-building’ in medical contexts through her research and work with women with chronic illnesses. Shaped by the limitations of American medical care and combining numerous disciplines of rhetoric (feminist, health and medicine, disability, technical/professional), Kalodner-Martin’s research gives voice to patients often gatekept from their own medical knowledge. Subsequently, patients utilize social media to ‘reframe’ effective health care delivery from an individual to a universal, collective issue. Using participants and voices often ignored by medicine, Kalodner-Martin subsequently gives space and opportunity for all to build resources and create a stronger version of medical justice."
This is the second award Kalodner-Martin's dissertation has won. Earlier this year, Kalodner-Martin received the 2025 CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication.