Christopher Stuart
Assistant Professor- University of North Carolina Wilmington
Department of Communication Studies
Stuartc@uncw.edu
Research Interests
Integrated Marketing Communication; Digital Rhetorics; Game-Based Pedagogy; Digital and Analog Gaming; Message Design

PhD, Clemson University, Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design, May 2020
Dissertation Title: "Rhetorical Invention in a 21st Century Technoculture: A New Ludic Framework for Learning" Committee: Jan Rune Holmevik (Chair); Megan Eatman; Danielle Herro; James Gilmore
Graduate Certificate in Written Communications, Eastern Michigan University, English – Teaching of Writing, April 2016
MA, Eastern Michigan University, English – Literature, August 2016
Thesis: Tricking for Change: Establishing the Literary Trickster in the Western Tradition Committee: Dr. Christine Neufeld (Director), Dr. Laura George
BA, Montclair State University, NJ, English – Literature (major), Creative Writing (minor), May 2009
AA, Ocean County College, NJ, Liberal Arts – May 2007
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2020 – Present
Big Tent Digital Literacy Initiative, Graduate Administrative Assistant, 2018 - 2020
- Content management (bigtent.clemson.edu)
- Write features about students and faculty
- Meet with creative faculty and digital literacy allies about initiatives on campus
- Adobe Digital Studio Workshop Organizer & Facilitator
- Design Marketing Materials
- Engage with Digital and Physical Promotions
- Organize and Facilitate Weekly Workshops on Hardware and Software (21 Fall 2019)
Graduate Teacher of Record, Clemson University, 2016 - 2020
University Writing Consultant, Eastern Michigan University, 2014 - 2016
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Eastern Michigan University, 2014 - 2016
University of North Carolina Wilmington
- COM231 Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communication (2 sections [online], 1 section [hybrid], 2020-2021)
- COM 334 Integrated Marketing Communication: Message Design (5 sections [online], 2020-2021)
- COM 338 Integrated Marketing Communication: Campaign Design (1 section [online], 1 section [hybrid], 2020-2021)
Clemson University, 2016 - 2020
- ENGL3140 Technical Writing (4 section, 2019 - 2020)
- ENGL3120 Advanced Composition: Composing in Digital Environments (4 sections, 2018-2019) [proposed and taught]
- ENGL3140 Technical Writing [online] (2 section, 2018, 2019)
- ENGL1030 Composition and Rhetoric [Pilot Program] (4 sections, 2017 - 2018)
- Asked to work with two other instructors to develop a more digitally enhanced composition class with updated projects, assignments, and outcomes.
- ENGL1030 Composition and Rhetoric (4 sections, 2016 - 2017)
Eastern Michigan University, 2014 - 2016
- WRTG120 Composition I: Writing the College Experience (2 sections, 2014, 2015)
- WRTG121 Composition II: Researching the Public Experience (2 sections, 2015, 2016)
- EMU Opportunity Summer Incentive Program (2 sections, 2015)
- Developed curriculum and taught a summer intensive for a scholarship program.
- University Writing Center Consultant (2014-2016)
Stuart, Christopher. “From Actuality to Possibility: Reckoning with the Ethics of Failure in Pedagogy,” Playing with the Rules: The Ethics of Playing, Researching, and Teaching Games in the Writing Classroom, edited by Matthew S. Johnson, Richard Colby, and Rebekah Shultz-Colby, 2021
Stuart, Christopher. “Roll for Student Initiative Series.” OneShot: A Journal of Critical Play and Games, vol. 1, no. 1.
Stuart, Christopher. “Classroom Heroes – Christopher Stuart” How Game-Based Learning Empowers Students for the Future, EduSurge.com, February 2018
Riggs, Nathan and Stuart, Christopher. “Video Games and Memory Soundscape.” Rhetorics Change: Rhetoric Society of America 2016 Atlanta Conference Proceedings, edited by Eric Detweiler and Jenny Rice, Intermezzo and Parlor Press.
Stuart, Christopher. “E.28: The Play’s the Thing: Cultivating Voice and Agency through a Gaming Pedagogy.” [Review] Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, vol. 22, no. 2, 2018
Information Literacy Faculty Fellow, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2021 ($1000)
Big Tent Digital Literacy Initiative Professional Enrichment Grant, Clemson University, 2018 – 2019 ($5600)
Excellence in Leadership, Clemson Graduate Students Government, Spring 2019 ($50)
Professional Enrichment Grant, Clemson University Graduate Student Government, 2016 – 2020 ($4,582 total)
Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design Program Travel Grant, 2016 – 2020 ($1,500)
Big Tent Digital Literacy Initiative Professional Enrichment Grant, Clemson University, Fall 2018 ($2800)
Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboration (HASTAC) – Scholar Award 2017-2019 ($200)
EMU Celebration of Excellence: Distinguished Graduate Student in Written Communication Award, April 2016 ($250)
EMU Celebration of Excellence: Tutor in the University Writing Center Award, April 2016 ($250)
EMU Graduate School Travel Award, 2015 – 2016 ($500)
EMU Dean’s Student Travel Award Fund, 2015 – 2016 ($800)
EMU First Year Writing Program Teaching Portfolio Award, April 2015 ($150)
Communication Studies Presentations
“Critical Fanbase: An Analysis of Critical Role as a Game-Changing Subcategory,” UNCW Integrated Marketing Communication Conference, Virtual, June 2021
“Minecraft University: Embracing Failure and Adjusting to the Pandemic,” Game-Based Learning Virtual Conference, Virtual, April 2021
“COVID & Dragons: The New Dungeons & Dragons Outbreak in Virtual Spaces,” Eastern Communication Association Conference, Virtual, March 2021
Rhetoric and Composition Presentations
"In-Between the Academy: Meeting Students Halfway Using Game-Based Learning,” Conference on College Composition & Communication, Milwaukee, March 2020
“It’s Raining Chickens!: Introducing Students to Modding through Minecraft: Education Edition” Computers and Writing, East Lansing, June 2019
“Between Chaos and Recognition: A Ludic Framework for Digital Learning” Computers and Writing, East Lansing, June 2019
“Tanked Presentations: A Collaborative Approach to Authentic Presentations” Digital Praxis Poster, Conference on College Composition & Communication, Pittsburg, March 2019
“We Build This City: Transmediating Research into a Three-Dimensional Argument using Minecraft: Education Edition,” Children’s Literature Association Conference, San Antonio, June 2018
“Gamed Invention: Multimodal Writing through Coding, Crafting, and Playing” Rhetoric Society of America, Minneapolis, May-June 2018
“Playing through Electrate Frameworks: Reimagining Outcomes for Success through Minecraft in the Composition Classroom” Work-in-Progress Presenter, Rhetoric Society of America Research Network Forum, Minneapolis, May-June 2018
“Opposing Squad Goals: Metanoic Reflection on Permadeath in the XCOM Series” Presenter, Computers and Writing, Fairfax, May 2018
“Playful Phronesis: Composing through Failure in Playful Spaces” Computers and Writing, Fairfax, May 2018
“Gamification and Game-Based Learning: Spatiality of Labored Semantics” Conference on College Composition & Communication, Kansas City, March 2018
“Writing as Technological Continuum: Digital Praxis and Evolution in the Composition Classroom” Digital Praxis Poster, Conference on College Composition & Communication, Kansas City, March 2018
“Playing Through Electrate Frameworks: Reimagining Outcomes for Success” Work-in-Progress Presenter, Conference on College Composition & Communication Research Network Forum, Kansas City, March 2018
“Tanked Presentations: Displacing Traditional Notions of Student Presentation Models in FYC” Margins Conference, Clemson, March 2018
“’It was Petyr all the while’: Petyr Baelish’s Ladder and the Trickster Figure” Southwest Popular and American Culture Association, Albuquerque, February 2018
“Evaluating Reflections in First-Year Composition: Enacting Metanoic And Kairotic Thinking” Conference on College Composition & Communication, Portland, March 2017
“Mapping the First-Year Composition Classroom: Outcomes, Habits, and Minecraft Education” Carolina Rhetorics Conference, Columbia, February 2017
“We’re a lot stronger than we think”: Gaming through Existentialism in Joe Kelly’s I Kill Giants” Children’s Literature Association Conference, Columbus, June 2016
“Game-Based Composition Studies: Playing with Agency at the Rhetorical Inn,” 3rd Annual CUNY Games Festival, New York City, January 2016
“Gamification: Using Gaming Concepts to Motivate Writers” Michigan Council of Teachers of English Conference, East Lansing, October 2015
“Threshold Concepts and the Inevitability of Transgressive Invitation,” WIDE-EMU Conference Co-Presenter, East Lansing, October 2015
“Is Gaming Writing?,” WIDE-EMU Conference, East Lansing, October 2015
“Making the Unimaginable Project a Reality through Process Logs,” College English Association Conference, Indianapolis, March 2015
“An Exchange of Power: Petyr Baelish and Societal Change” Eastern Michigan University Graduate Research Conference, Ypsilanti, November 2015
“On Process: Process Logs and the Research Guided Essay,” Eastern Michigan University English Graduate Student Association Conference, Ypsilanti, March 2015
“The Righteousness of Darkness: Nico di Angelo, Blending into Shadows,” Children’s Literature Association Conference, Richmond, June 2015
“A Trickster and the Fall of Troy: The Exploitation of Courtly Love,” Eastern Michigan University Graduate Research Conference, Ypsilanti, November 2014
“’lorde of this foles alle’: The Exposure of Societal Flaws through Trickery in Troilus and Criseyde,” Case Western Reserve University Evil Incarnate, Cleveland, July 2014
“What is Human?: Jewish Identity in Tzili: A Story of a Life,” Georgia State University New Voices Graduate Student Conference, Atlanta, January 2014
Invited Speaking Engagements
“IMC Approach to Kickstarter: Analyzing the Success of Analog Game Kickstarters” – invited speaker, Online Marketing Communication Series, Universitas Airlangga, December 2020
“Advanced Video Editing Techniques in Adobe Premiere Pro” – guest presenter, Pearce Center for Professional Communication, February 2020
“Digital Initiatives: Clemson’s Composition and Rhetoric Pilot Program” – guest presenter, ENGL 8850: Composition Theory, March 2018
“Why Electrate Learning Matters: A Case Study in Minecraft” – guest presenter, ENGL678: Digital Literacy, January 2018
“Digital Literacy Initiative” – guest presenter, IGRSS Advancement Board Meeting, Clemson University, September 2017
“Teaching Digital Literacy in ENGL1030” – guest presenter, Creativity Faculty Workshop, Clemson University, August 2017
“What is Game-Based Pedagogy and How Does It Work?” – presenter, S3S Student Work in Progress, Clemson University, April 2017
“Mapping Minecraft: Education Edition onto the WPA Outcomes” – presenter, RCID Games and Film Colloquium, Clemson University, February 2017
Organized Panels
“Three Approaches to Empathy: Minecraft, Indigenous Design, and TTRPGs,” Game-Based Learning Virtual Conference, Virtual, April 2021
“Composing Game Spaces: Minecraft Across the Writing Curriculum,” Conference on College Composition & Communication, Milwaukee, March 2020
“Exploration, Play, and Construction with Digital Invention: Pedagogies, Problems, and Potential” Chaired and Organized, Computers and Writing, East Lansing, June 2019
“Choose Your Own Build: Transmediation through Worldbuilding and Interactive Fiction” Children’s Literature Association Conference, San Antonio, June 2018
“Future-Building: (Re)inventing Multimodality in the Composition Classroom” Computers and Writing, Fairfax, May 2018
Workshops
“Learn How to Make a Portfolio in InDesign” – facilitator, Com Studies Week, University of North Carolina Wilmington, March 2021
“Build Your Own Logo: Adobe Illustrator Essentials” – co-facilitator, Com Studies Week, University of North Carolina Wilmington, March 2021
Adobe Digital Studio Workshop Series – organizer & presenter, Clemson University Cooper Library & Pearce Center, Spring 2020 (8 workshops)
“Adobe Spark Seminar” – co-presenter, Clemson University Emeritus College, Fall 2019
Adobe Digital Studio Workshop Series – organizer & presenter, Clemson University Cooper Library & Pearce Center, Fall 2019 (21 workshops)
“Video Literacy: Exemplary Student Works” – presenter, Clemson Creative Faculty Workshop, Clemson, May 2019
“W.05: Remixing Performance in Games” – co-presenter, Conference on College Composition & Communication, Pittsburg, March 2019
“Adobe Technology Showcase – Adobe Rush” – presenter & co-organizer, CollabFest, Clemson University, February 2019
“Clemson Summer Scholars: Minecraft” – co-instructor, Clemson Summer Scholars Program, Clemson University, June 2018
“Portfolio Teaching” – organizer, FYWP Professional Development Committee, Eastern Michigan University, October 2015
Family Writing Fun Night – lead presenter, Eastern Michigan Writing Project
- Washtenaw International Middle Academy, April 2015
- Ypsilanti Community High School, April 2015
- Romulus High School, January 2015
- Taft Galloway Elementary School, January 2015
- Marshall Upper Elementary, November 2014
“Reinvent Your Composition” – organizer & presenter, English Graduate Student Association, Eastern Michigan University, March 2015
“Snack and Study” – writing consultant, Eastern Michigan University - December 2014 & 2015
“Evernote in the Classroom” – organizer and presenter, English Graduate Student Association, Eastern Michigan University, December 2014
First Year Writing Program Article Discussion – organizer & discussion lead, FYWP Professional Development Committee, Eastern Michigan University, October 2014
"Clemson Creatives - Clemson Creative Jam Series" Youtube, Sept. 2o19.
"#6 Minecraft: Inspiring Young Engineers" Engineering Matters, 1 Oct. 2018.
“University Students Learn to Communicate, Create, and Collaborate with 3D Gaming Software.” Microsoft, 23 Jan. 2018.
Professional
Xchanges – Social Media & Communications Editor – 2020 – Current
- Assistant Social Media & Communications Editor – 2018 – 2020
OneShot: A Journal of Critical Games and Play – co-editor - 2019 - 2020
The Council for Play and Game Studies - Membership Coordinator - 2018 - 2019
WPA-GO Mentoring Breakfast, co-organizer, Conference on College Composition & Communication, Kansas City, March 2018
C’s the Day – Volunteer, Council for Play and Game Studies, Conference on College Composition & Communication, Kansas City, March 2018
Minecraft: Education Edition Global Mentor - 2018
Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboration (HASTAC) – Scholar Class 2017-2019
Writing Program Administrators – Graduate Organization, Mentoring Events Committee, 2017 - 2018
“Works about KB.” Kenneth Burke Bibliography Project. KB Journal. November 2017. (With David Blakesley et al.)
“Rhetoric and Games Zotero Bibliography” – curator - Council for Play and Game Studies, 2017
The 2012 NJCTE Conference – volunteer, New Jersey Council of Teachers of English, Montclair State University, March 2012
University
CollabFest 2019 – Clemson University, 2019
- Creative Jam – co-organizer
- Adobe Technology Showcase – co-organizer
Society of the 3rd Sophistic (S3S) – Clemson University
- President – 2018-2019
- Development Coordinator – 2017-2018
Carolinas Rhetoric Conference, Committee Member – Clemson University 2018
- Keynote Speaker Committee
- Funding Committee
- Proposal Reviewer and Session Organizing Committee
Poster Event Judge, Undergraduate Focus on Creative Inquiry – Clemson University, 2017
Professional Enrichment Grant Reviewer – Graduate Student Government, Clemson University 2017-2018
English Graduate Student Association (EGSA) – Eastern Michigan University
- President – 2015 – 2016
- Vice-President – 2014 – 2015
- Secretary – 2013 – 2014
First Year Writing Program Student Focus Groups – interviewer and transcriber, Eastern Michigan University, 2015
First Year Writing Program Professional Development Committee – member, Eastern Michigan University, 2014 – 2015
Grade Grievance Committee – graduate student representative, Eastern Michigan University, 2014 – 2016
Department
Lambda Pi Eta UNCW Chapter – faculty advisor, Spring 2021 - current
Games and Media Colloquia - Co-Facilitator, Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design program, Clemson University 2019 - 2020
IRB Information Session – organizer, Society of the 3rd Sophistic SWIP, Clemson University, February 2018
Job Market Information Session – organizer, Society of the 3rd Sophistic SWIP, Clemson University, October 2017
Curriculum Vitae Workshop – organizer, Society of the 3rd Sophistic SWIP, Clemson University, October 2017
“Writing Conference Proposals: And How to Find Them” – presenter, Society of the 3rd Sophistic SWIP, Clemson University, September 2017
“Demystifying the PhD: Advice on how to Navigate the Four-Year Program” – presenter, Society of the 3rd Sophistic SWIP, Clemson University, September 2017
ENGL1030: Advanced Composition Digital Literacy Pilot Study – Clemson University, August 2017 – April 2018
2nd Annual Eastern Michigan English Graduate Student Association Conference – organizer, English Graduate Student Association, March 2016
Graduate Assistantship Information Session – presenter, English Graduate Student Association, Eastern Michigan University, January 2016
Faculty Lecture Series – organizer, English Graduate Student Association, Eastern Michigan University, November 2015
PhD Information Session – organizer, English Graduate Student Association, Eastern Michigan University, October 2015
Eastern Michigan English Graduate Student Association Conference – organizer, English Graduate Student Association, March 2015
Curriculum Vitae Workshop – co-organizer, English Graduate Student Association, Eastern Michigan University, February 2015
“Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know about PhD Programs” – co-organizer, English Graduate Student Association, Eastern Michigan University, November 2014