Summer Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG)
DePaul University
July 2025 – September 2025

Abstract: This study, The Rhetoric of Hybrid Publishing: Negotiating Legitimacy and Stigma in the Modern Publishing Landscape will examine the rhetorical implications of hybrid publishing, a model in which authors share financial and creative control with professional publishers, challenging established narratives of legitimacy, authority, and artistic value. It will explore how this model disrupts traditional hierarchies in the publishing industry and reconfigures authorship and credibility, creating new opportunities for marginalized voices. By analyzing the rhetorical frameworks that sustain conventional notions of literary legitimacy, the study will investigate how hybrid publishing complicates dominant discourses around cultural capital, gatekeeping, and creative agency in contemporary literary production.

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The Rhetoric of Hybrid Publishing: Negotiating Legitimacy and Stigma in the Modern Publishing Landscape
NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Lisbon, Portugal | July 1–3, 2026

Abstract: Hybrid publishing has become one of the most debated models in contemporary publishing, sitting at the intersection of traditional, self-, and open access pathways. Defined by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) as an author-subsidized model that maintains professional editorial, production, and distribution standards, hybrid publishing disrupts inherited notions of legitimacy, authority, and cultural value. While often dismissed as “vanity publishing,” many hybrid publishers uphold rigorous vetting and professional practices while offering authors greater creative agency and higher royalties. This paper explores how hybrid publishing is framed and contested in professional, institutional, and public discourse. Drawing on rhetorical analysis, digital ethnography, and author interviews, it investigates how legitimacy and stigma are negotiated in ways that reveal deeper cultural tensions: between democratization and gatekeeping, vocational practice and academic rigor, and commercial viability and cultural value. By situating hybrid publishing within the broader social practice of publishing, this paper highlights its significance as more than an alternative business model. It demonstrates how hybrid publishing reshapes access to cultural production, challenges entrenched hierarchies and reconfigures the role of publishers as mediators of social knowledge. The paper argues that Publishing Studies must take hybrid models seriously as they seek to exist beyond the peripheral or anomalous realms of the industry, as critical spaces where power, authorship, and knowledge are actively redefined. In doing so, hybrid publishing becomes a lens for examining broader questions of equity, legitimacy, and creative agency in a polarized information landscape.

The Rhetoric of Hybrid Publishing:
Negotiating Legitimacy and Stigma in the Modern Publishing Landscape
George Washington University
Washington D.C. | October 9th, 2025

Abstract: In today’s evolving literary landscape, hybrid publishing has emerged as a disruptive force that challenges traditional notions of legitimacy, authorship, and artistic authority. Defined by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) as an author-subsidized business model, hybrid publishing combines the professional standards of traditional publishing with a financial structure in which authors invest in the process. This presentation offers a rhetorical analysis of how hybrid publishing is framed in public and institutional discourse. Drawing on digital ethnography, interviews, and publishing scholarship, it explores how legitimacy is constructed, contested, and redefined. This session invites critical reflection on access, equity, and creative agency in an evolving publishing ecosystem.

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• Presentation

Issued by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
DePaul University
May 2025

Awarded in recognition of academic achievement for maintaining a GPA of 3.7 or higher. Presented at the Annual Honors Convocation during the recipient’s senior year.

Issued by the Library Publishing Coalition
University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
June 2021

Mavs Open Press was awarded the Accessibility Award for our publication, Applied Fluid Mechanics Lab Manual. The submissions were evaluated by the LPC Publishing Practice Awards Committee through a competitive selection process. Our submission was recognized for "demonstrating exemplary practices in publishing, with a strong emphasis on key publishing principles."

Issued by the American Library Association
June 2025

This six-week course on metadata fundamentals develops solid understanding of key concepts including descriptive, technical, and administrative metadata. The course covered metadata schemas, content standards, controlled vocabularies, and practical methods for metadata creation and transformation. We also learned how to plan and design a metadata project based on real-world scenarios, and how to describe content using appropriate standards and vocabularies.

Issued by CITI Program
DePaul University
May 2025
Credential ID: 69127880

The IRB Human Subjects Training is a mandatory educational program designed to ensure that researchers understand the ethical principles and regulatory requirements involved in conducting research with human participants. It typically covers topics such as informed consent, risk minimization, privacy and confidentiality, and the rights of research subjects. Completion of this training is often required before researchers can obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for their studies.

Issued by Harvard University
May 2024

CopyrightX is a twelve-week networked course that has been offered annually since 2013 under the auspices of Harvard Law School and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. The course explores the current law of copyright; the impact of that law on art, entertainment, and industry; and the ongoing debates concerning how the law should be reformed. Through a combination of recorded lectures, assigned readings, weekly seminars, live interactive webcasts, and online discussions, participants in the course examine and assess the ways in which the copyright system seeks to stimulate and regulate creative expression. 

Issued by the Public Knowledge Project
October 2018

The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) develops Open Journal Systems (OJS), an open-source platform that supports open access scholarly publishing. For Journal Managers, OJS offers tools to manage submissions, peer review, publishing, and user roles, while allowing customization of journal settings and layout. It streamlines editorial workflows and promotes accessible, transparent research dissemination.