Amber Keen- Steve Holmes Apr 2026

Steve Holmes, an associate professor at George Mason University, is best known for his work on the materiality of digital texts and the often-overlooked history of early computing in writing pedagogy. His 2018 article, "The Textual Practice of Literate Programming," and his contributions to the Rhetoric Society Quarterly explore how code functions as a rhetorical gesture. Holmes argues that digital archives are not neutral repositories; they are rhetorical constructs that shape which histories become visible. His emphasis on "procedural rhetoric" in archival contexts challenges scholars to read the interface, database structure, and search algorithms as historiographic agents.

Introduction In the evolving landscape of rhetoric and composition studies, the work of Amber Keen and Steve Holmes stands out for its rigorous attention to the intersection of material texts, digital archives, and feminist historiography. While their individual research trajectories are distinct—Keen often focusing on feminist recovery projects and Holmes on digital rhetoric and the history of computing—their collaborative and parallel efforts have significantly advanced how scholars understand the preservation, access, and interpretation of marginalized rhetorical artifacts. Amber Keen- Steve Holmes

Amber Keen and Steve Holmes represent a vital current in 21st-century rhetoric: scholars who embrace digital tools while fiercely critiquing them. Together, they remind the field that an archive is never just a pile of old documents—it is a living rhetorical construction. For graduate students and researchers looking to build ethical digital archives or recover silenced voices, engaging with Keen and Holmes’s work is not optional; it is foundational. Steve Holmes, an associate professor at George Mason