Christa Teston studies how humans navigate uncertainty in technoscientific, biomedical and media-rich domains. Specifically, she researches the evidential backstage, or all the work that goes on behind the scenes when experts attempt to corral chaos. Her first book—Bodies in Flux: Scientific Methods for Negotiating Medical Uncertainty (University of Chicago Press)—critiques the fetishization of certainty and advocates for an ethic of care that honors human fragility and bodily flux.

In addition to this site-based research, Teston also has expertise in research methodologies. She has co-edited (with Brian McNely and Clay Spinuzzi) a special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly focused on contemporary research methodologies in technical communication.

Teston serves as the department’s director of business and professional writing. She also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses that focus on how writing and rhetoric may be used to make more livable worlds.

With Wendy Hesford and Shui-yin Sharon Yam, Christa co-edits the “New Directions in Rhetoric and Materiality” book series at The Ohio State University Press.

Selected Publications

• Bodies in Flux: Scientific Methods for Negotiating Medical Uncertainty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
• “Rhetoric, Precarity, and mHealth Technologies.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 46.3 (2016):251-268.
• “Enthymematic Elasticity in the Biomedical Backstage.” In L. Walsh and C. Boyle’s Topologies as Techniques for a Post-Critical Rhetoric. 2017.
• “A Grounded Investigation of Genred Guidelines in Cancer Care Deliberations.” Written Communication 26 (2009): 320-340.
• “Rendering and Reifying Brain Sex Science.” In S. Barnett & C. Boyle (Eds.), Rhetoric, Through Everyday Things. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2016.
• "Precarious Rhetorics." Hesford, W.S., Licona, A.C., Teston, C. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 2018.
• "Teaching participative justice in professional writing." Hashlamon, Y. & Teston, C. Technical Communication Quarterly, 2021.
• "Responding to the investigative pivots of rhetoric research." Johnson, G.P., Guadrón, M, Hambrick, K., Hashlamon, Y., Koneval, A., & Teston, C.  Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2021.
• "Surveying precarious publics." Teston, C., Gonzales, L., Bivens, K., & Whitney, K. Rhetoric of Health and Medicine 2(3), 321-351, 2019.
• "The grind of multimodal work in professional writing pedagogies." Teston, C., Previte, B., Hashlamon, Y. Computers and Composition 52, 195-209, 2019.
• "Pathologizing precarity." In W.S. Hesford, A.C. Licona and C. Teston (Eds.), Precarious Rhetorics (276-297). Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 2018.
• "Rhetorical recalibrations and response-abilities." Hesford, W.S., Licona, A.C., Teston, C. In W.S. Hesford, A.C. Licona and C. Teston (Eds.), Precarious Rhetorics (1-17). Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 2018.

Curriculum Vitae