Understanding technology more critically as a manifestation of human values in technologized rhetorical subdisciplines

Scope and method of study. This study investigates how academic humanities ideology oftentimes resists alternative humanistic frameworks that recognize technology as central, rather than opposed, to humanistic goals and action. This dissertation traces the work of scholars in technical communication and computers and writing and analyzes descriptions of the humanistic nature of their respective fields of inquiry.;Findings and conclusions. Technical communication and computers and writing have often relied on conservative, techno-skeptical notions of the humanistic that align well with academic humanities ideology but oftentimes resist alternative humanistic frameworks that recognize technology as central, rather than opposed, to humanistic goals and action. By recognizing technology as central, technical communication and computers and writing can develop a more authentic description of their humanistic character and disciplinary definition and can recast a more pragmatic interpretation of the humanistic that rehabilitates technology in the humanities.