Faculty Profile for Dr. S Marek Muller

profile photo for Dr. S Marek Muller
Dr. S Marek Muller
Assistant Professor — Department of Communication Studies
CENT 205
phone: (512) 245-2165
Scholarly/Creative Work
Awards
Grants
Service

Biography Section

Biography and Education

 Dr. S. Marek Muller was born and raised in Denver, CO. Since then, they have lived and taught all around the world in locations ranging from Muncie, Indiana to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. They received their PhD in Communication from the University of Utah. Dr. Muller came to TXST in Summer 2023 after four years of teaching in the School of Communication & Multimedia Studies at Florida Atlantic University. Now that they have landed in San Marcos, Dr. Muller is excited to be a member of the Bobcat Community and to join TXST in its Run to R1.

Dr. Muller is a rhetorician concerned with the many competing (and often contradicting) discourses of animal rights & welfare. They study how the pernicious ideology of “speciesism” manifests in language and how that language is used to justify the exploitation of nonhuman animals. Their work is most concerned with the intersections of the global animal rights movement with human-oriented political & justice movements. For example, using their situated knowledge as an autistic person, Dr. Muller examines how anti-autistic ableism and anti-farmed animal speciesism intersect and bolster one another in dominant discourses of “humane slaughter.” By examining the intersections of animalization, dehumanization, speciesism, and other oppressive -isms, Dr. Muller uses prescriptive rhetorical methods to suggest ethics, policies, and linguistic shifts conducive to total liberation and multispecies justice.

When life permits, Dr. Muller devotes an absurd amount of time watching (and a small amount of time writing about) professional wrestling. Since they are old and cannot do a proper body slam, they cope by practicing karate and Muay Thai outside of work.

Teaching Interests

 Rhetorical Theory
Rhetorical Methods
Intercultural Communication
Science, Health & Environmental Rhetoric
Environmental Communication
Communication & Law

Research Interests

 Contemporary Rhetorical Theory & Criticism
Media Studies
Environmental Communication
Food Studies
Ecofeminism
Critical Animal Studies
Critical/Cultural Communication Studies
Law & Jurisprudence

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • Rooney, D., & Muller, S. M. (2024). Woke Sausages at the Cracker Barrel: Gastronativism and the Synecdochic Politics of Plant-based Meat. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 26(3), 1–24.
  • Muller, S. M. (2023). Dairy Pride: Hypocognitive Rhetoric and the Battle for Dairy’s Name. Environmental Communication, 17(8), 975–990.
  • Muller, S. M. (2022). Monkey Business in a Kangaroo Court: Reimagining Naruto v Slater as a Litigious Event. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 25(1), 31–59.
  • Muller, S. M., & McNeill, Z. (2021). Toppling the Temple of Grandin: Autistic-Animal Analogies and the Ableist-Speciesist Nexus. Rhetoric, Society & Culture, 1(2), 195–225.
  • Muller, S. M. (2021). Carnistic Colonialism: A Rhetorical Dissection of Bushmeat During the 2014 Ebola Outbreak. Frontiers in Communication, (6), 656431.

Selected Awards

  • Award / Honor Recipient: Christine Oravec Top Journal Article Award, NCA Environmental Communication Division. August 30, 2024
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Top Conference Paper Overall, International Environmental Communication Association. 2023
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Faculty Research Award, School of Communication & Multimedia Studies (Florida Atlantic University). 2021
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Annual Scholars’ Research Showcase, Florida Atlantic University: College of Arts & Letters. December 2021
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Annual Fellow, Institute for Critical Animal Studies. 2020

Selected Grants

  • Muller, Stephanie Marek (Principal). Legal Metonymy & Carcerality by Proxy: BSL Legislation in Denver, CO, Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy, Private / Foundation / Corporate. (Funded: January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023). Grant.

Selected Service Activities

Member
Graduate Program Committee
2023-Present
Reviewer / Referee
Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics
2023-Present
Research Library Writer
Faunalytics
2023-Present
Editorial Review Board Member
Western Journal of Communication
2024-2026
Chair and Program Planner
Environmental Communication Interest Group: Western States Communication Association
2020-2022