Dr. Loren Gaudet

Dr. Loren Gaudet completed her BA-Honours in Women’s Studies (now Gender Studies) at the University of Victoria, MA in Science and Technology Studies at York University, and PhD in English Language and Literatures (Rhetoric, Specialization Science and Technology Studies) at the University of British Columbia. From 2019 to 2021, she was a Lecturer in WRDS at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Gaudet joined the University of Victoria in 2021, and has served as the ATWP 135 Course Coordinator since January, 2025. Dr. Gaudet also serves on the Executive Committee for the Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing/Association Canadianne de Rédactologie (2026-28).

Dr. Gaudet has two main areas of research and teaching. Her research in the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine seeks to understand how language shapes understandings and experiences of health and illness and participates in the production of scientific and medical knowledge, especially in the rhetorics of public health and public awareness; her research and collaborations in writing studies centre around anti-oppressive pedagogies, along with practices of belonging in the first-year classroom.

Selected Publications

Gaudet, Loren. “Repulsive and Precious: Thinking with the Tick in Canadian Lyme Disease Discourse.” BMJ Medical Humanities, April 2026.

Gaudet, Loren. “A Case for Low-Stakes Collaboration: Increasing Access through a Mini-Assignment in the First-Year Composition Classroom.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship, vol. 51, no. 6, no. 103150, 2025.

Toorenburgh, Lydia and Loren Gaudet. “Doing our work in a good way: a framework of collaboration and a case for Indigenous-only writing classrooms.” Special Issue on Teaching Writing in Canada, Discourse and Writing/ Rédactologie, 2024, vol. 34.

Humphreys, Sara, Loren Gaudet, Jason Collins, and Natalie Boldt. Writing & Power: Positions and Policies for Social Change, December 2024. Government (SSHRC) Report.

Gaudet, Loren. “The Piety of Optimization: The Rhetoric of Health Awareness in ParticipACTION and Fitbit.” Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 2023, vol. 27, no.1.

Gaudet, Loren. “Labour-Based Grading Contracts in an Indigenous-Specific Section of Academic Reading and Writing.” Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, 2022, Vol.32.

Gaudet, Loren. “Health Awareness as Genre: The Exigence of Preparedness in Cancer Awareness Campaigns and Critical Illness Marketing.” BMJ’s Medical Humanities, 2021, Vol 48, no. 1.

Gaudet, Loren. “‘Even Heroes Get Depressed’: Sponsorship and Self-Stigma in Canada’s Mental Illness Awareness Week.” Journal of Medical Humanities, vol. 40, no. 2, June 2019.

Fellowships and Awards

• 2026-27 Faculty of Humanities Fellow, University of Victoria
• Doreen Starke-Meyerring Annual Award Honourable Mention for Best Article or Chapter in Writing & Discourse Studies for “Doing our work in a good way: a framework of collaboration and a case for  Indigenous-only writing classrooms” with Lydia Toorenburgh, Canadian Association of Discourse and Writing Studies, 2025
• SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant: Writing and Power: Positions and Policies for Social Change (Co-Applicant), 2024
• Visiting Research Scholar, University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Science, Fall 2024
• 2024 Faculty of Humanities Early Career Excellence in Research, University of Victoria
• LTSI Open Educational Resource Grant, (Co-Applicant) University of Victoria, 2023
• LTSI Open Educational Resource Grant, (Co-Applicant) University of Victoria, 2022

Current Research

Dr. Gaudet is finishing a book on the rhetorical history of Lyme Disease in Canada, The Making of Canadian Lyme Disease: Expertise, Uncertainty, and the Rise of the Constituent Patient, with University of Toronto Press. She frames Canadian Lyme disease as a “rhetorical object” comprising multiple, shifting Lyme diseases, and shows that these multiple materializations of Canadian Lyme disease were determined through discursive arenas, audiences, and evidence.

Dr. Gaudet is also co-editing a collection of essays with Dr. Sara Humphreys, called Rhetoric, Writing, and Discourse Today. This project draws on expertise from Rhetoric and Writing Studies scholars at Canadian institutions to offer a snapshot of how leading scholars across the country are engaging with pressing issues to do with Rhetoric, Writing, and Discourse in our current moment.

Courses Taught

• ATWP 135: Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing
• ATWP 135: Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing (Indigenous)
• ATWP 110: Academic Writing Support and Development
• ATWP 305: Language and Rhetoric in Health and Medicine
• MDIA 325: Health and the Internet
• ENGR 110: Design and Communication