Research Interests
Animal Rights, Ecofeminism, Law, Social movements, Rhetoric, Veganism

Biography

Dr. Muller is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX, USA. Previously, they taught at Florida Atlantic University, Ball State University, and the Institute of Enginering & Technology in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. They received their PhD in Communication and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies from the University of Utah in 2018. Dr. Muller’s teaching and research are in the areas of rhetoric, environmental communication, and critical-cultural communication studies. They study the rhetorical construction and dissemination of arguments pertaining to nonhuman animal rights, ethics, and welfare, particularly when those arguments intersect with human-oriented narratives regarding difference, deviance, and justice. They serve on the editorial boards of the Western Journal of Communication and Frontiers in Communication, served as chair of the Environmental Communication Interest Group of the Western States Communication Association, and was awarded the Brooks Institute Scholars Research Fellowship to conduct research on animal rights law & policy.

Key Publications

• Muller, S. M. 2017. “Elephant Tracings: A Critical Animal/postcolonial Genealogy of the Royal Museum for Central Africa.” Journal for Critical Animal Studies 14 (2): 5-41.
• Muller, S. M. 2018. “Zombification, Social Death, and the Saughterhouse: US Industrial Practices of Livestock Slaughter.” American Studies 57 (3): 81-101.
• Hasian Jr, M. A. and S. M. Muller. 2019. “Decolonizing Conservationist Hero Narratives.” Atlantic Journal of Communication 27 (4): 284-296.
• Muller, S. M. 2020. Impersonating Animals: Rhetoric, Ecofeminism, and Animal Rights Law. MSU Press.
• Muller, S. M. 2021. “Archival Mocking As Feminist Praxis: A Rhetorical Repurposing of A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes.” Women’s Studies in Communication 44 (1): 23-43.
• Muller, S. M. 2021. “Carnistic Colonialism: A Rhetorical Dissection of “Bushmeat” in the 2014 Ebola Outbreak.” Frontiers in Communication 6: 656431.
• Muller, S. M. 2021. “Companion Cyborgs: Untethering Discourses about Wolf-hybrids.” Environmental Communication 15 (1): 99-114.
• Muller, S. M. 2022. “Monkey Business in a Kangaroo Court: Reimagining Naruto v. Slater as a Litigious Event.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 25 (1): 31-59.
• Muller, S. M. 2023. “Dairy Pride: Hypocognitive Rhetoric and the Battle for Dairy’s Name.” Environmental Communication 17 (8): 975-990.
• Rooney, D. and S. M. Muller. 2023. “Woke Sausages at the Cracker Barrel: Gastronativism and the Synecdochic Politics of Plant-based Meat.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 26 (3): 1-34.
• Muller, S. M., D. Rooney, and C. Cerja. 2024. “Long Live the Liver King: Right-Wing Carnivorism and the Digital Dissemination of Primal Rhetoric.” Frontiers in Communication 9: 1338653.

Contact

Dr Muller can be contacted at mullersm@txstate.edu or smarekmuller@gmail.com.