Master of Arts, Miami University, 2022, English

In this thesis, I examine the ways in which race, ethnicity, and the raced body are written into the Census as a document of technical writing. The United States Census is the key site of inquiry that I examine in analyzing and articulating a rhetoric surrounding race and identity. While the Census does not dictate the ways how ethnicity is made visible or erased or the ways in which race is reified; the ways in which conceptions of race and racism permeate American society are complex and too large for the scope of one conference proposal or project. The Census, however, is an important technical document that tracks identities and demographics in America. And as a governmental document, its use in public discourse impacts minority communities such as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Hispanic Americans, as well as other minoritized communities like migrants or refugees. In this thesis, I use this analysis of the Census document to focus on Middle Eastern identity and its relationship to race, ethnicity, and the raced body in technical writing, and seek to use this study to develop a theory of delivering identity through writing.

Committee: James Porter (Advisor); Adam Strantz (Committee Member); Sara Webb-Sunderhaus (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Middle Eastern Studies; Rhetoric; Technical Communication