Jonathan Alexander

Chancellor's Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies, University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine

Jonathan’s research areas include Writing Studies, Composition/Rhetoric, New Media Studies, and Sexuality Studies.

His scholarly work focuses primarily on the use of emerging communications technologies in the teaching of writing and in shifting conceptions of what writing, composing, and authoring mean.

Jonathan also works at the intersection of the fields of writing studies and sexuality studies, where he explores what theories of sexuality, particularly queer theory, have to teach us about literacy and literate practice in pluralistic democracies.

Jonathan’s books include “Writing Youth: Young Adult Fiction as Literacy Sponsorship” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), “On Multimodality: New Media in Composition Studies” (with Jacqueline Rhodes, CCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric, 2014), “Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing” (with Elizabeth Losh, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013), “Bisexuality and Queer Theory” (edited with Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Routledge, 2011), “Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies” (with Deborah Meem and Michelle Gibson, Sage, 2010) and “Literacy, Sexuality, Pedagogy: Theory and Practice for Composition Studies” (Utah State University Press, 2008).

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Kevin Dunbar.

In memoriam: Kevin Dunbar, who traced the neural basis of human reasoning

Using imaging technologies, he transformed our understanding of how creativity and scientific discovery arise in the brain.

By Alissa de Chassey
24 July 2026 | 6 min read
Research image of neuronal migration.

Neurons engage in risky, DNA-breaking business during migration

The cells later repair the damage, which occurs mostly in transcriptionally silent parts of the genome.

By Sarah Thau
24 July 2026 | 4 min read
Child sitting on a trampoline.

Study questions DSM-5’s combining of autism traits

Sensory traits and restricted and repetitive behaviors are best understood as distinct but related characteristics, the new work suggests.

By Lauren Schenkman
23 July 2026 | 5 min read