Morgan Thoem

Morgan Thoem is a doctoral student pursuing her Ph.D. in Communication Studies on the Rhetoric and Political Culture Track, and is a recipient of the university’s Flagship Fellowship. She earned her B.A. in Communication at Berry College, alongside an M.A. in Communication Studies with a focus in Rhetorical Studies from the University of Georgia.

Morgan’s research rests at the nexus of rhetoric and fat studies, tracing the prescient rise of anti-fatness particularly across neoliberal, digitally and visually mediated, and intersectional embodied contexts. Morgan has presented her work on top paper panels at multiple regional and national conferences, including the National Communication Association Conference, the Eastern States Communication Association Conference, and the Southern States Communication Association Conference. Most recently, Morgan received NCA’s 2024 James L. Golden Outstanding Student Essay in Rhetoric Award, for her paper titled “Quilting Brutality: Critical Textual Construction and the Ideographic American Flag.”

Morgan has experience teaching both Public Speaking and Introduction to Human Communication, and currently teaches COMM 107 at the University of Maryland.