Hometown: Swords, Ireland
B.A. Degree: Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
M.A. Degree: Communication Studies, Baylor University
Current Research Interests: My research centers on non-human animals: both as subjects and objects of rhetoric. I am generally interested in the intersections of environmental communication, animal studies, and critical/cultural studies. In particular, some of my recent research examines how social hierarchy is reproduced through Western norms of appropriate human-animal and, by extension, human-nature relations.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Johanna Hartelius
Projected Graduation Date: Spring 2025
Rooney, David and Muller, M.S. (2023, June 5-9) “Woke Sausages:” Reading the Gastronativist Backlash to Cracker Barrel’s plant-based change," the 2023 Conference on Communication and Environment (COCE), (Harrisonburg, Virginia).
- 2023 COCE Top Paper award.
Rooney, David. (2022, November) “No Dogs Left Behind: Negotiating Animality in the Dog-Meat Trade,” Critical and Cultural Studies Division, 108th National Communication Association Convention, 2022 (New Orleans, Louisiana).
Rooney, David. (2022, November) “He died like a dog:” Trump, Conan the Dog and animal metaphor,” Public Address Division, 108th National Communication Association Convention, 2022 (New Orleans, Louisiana).
Rooney, David. (2022, November) “#NoBonesDay: Multi-species engagement and Animal Rendering in Pandemic Times,” TikTok on the Clock: An Investigation into Subject Formation on TikTok Panel, 108th National Communication Association Convention, 2022 (New Orleans, Louisiana).
Rooney, David, Cerja, Cecilia and Muller, S.M., “’Long Live the (Liver) King: Carnivore Diets, Alt-Right Influencers, and the Rhetoric of White Nationalism,” Frontiers in Communication [Special Issue “Media, Racism, Speciesism: Issues and Solutions for Creaturely Racism in the Anthropocene” edited by Natalie Khazaal, Ellen Gorsevksi and Tobias Linné]. (Accepted)
Rooney, David and Muller, S.M. “Woke Sausages at the Cracker Barrel: Gastronativism and the Synecdochic Politics of Plant-Based Meat,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs (Accepted).
Rooney, David. “’A Primordial Situation’: Metonymical Linkages in US Newspaper Coverage of Wet Markets.” Environmental Communication (2022): 16(6), 836-849; https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2022.2125548.
Rooney, David. “’All Fishing is Wildlife Poaching:’ Nonhuman Animal Imagery and Mutual Avowal in Racing Extinction and Seaspiracy.” Journalism and Media (2022): 3(2), 257-277; https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia3020020. [Special Issue, “Communication in Defense of Nonhuman Animals during an Extinction and Climate Crisis,” edited by Carrie P. Freeman and Núria Almiron.]
