Cara Marta Messina

A drawn cartoon image of Cara Marta Messina dressed as Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon. Drawn by Alyssa Alarcón Santo

Cara Marta Messina [she/her/hers] is an Assistant Professor of English Marist University. I receieved my Ph.D. in English, focusing on Writing and Rhetoric, from Northeastern University in 2021. My work research is invested in digital rhetoric, fan studies, game studies, social justice, coding rhetorics, and digital humanities.

My book Critical Fandom: Representations of Race, Gender, and Sexuality will come out in 2026 through University of Iowa Press. Keep an eye out for it!

My hobbies are reading, gaming, falling into coding holes, crocheting, and imagining that I will someday make my own cosplays. I believe professional and academic settings should cherish and support friendships and kinships.


Contact me by emailing cara.messina1 [at] marist [dot] edu. Follow me on Bluesky at @caramartamessina.com, where I run the Team Rhetoric feed.


A box of text that reads 'Research' A box of text. The header reads 'Research' and the rest of the text reads 'My research celebrates counternormative narratives and the power critical fans have in transforming their communities and popular culture. My dissertation, the Critical Fan Toolkit, is a teaching and learning digital resource for fans, scholars, and instructors alike. This toolkit: 1) Defines and traces critical fan uptakes using computational and qualitative methods. 2) Demonstrates how fans resist or reinforce the ideologies in the texts they love. 3)Provides methods to trace genre conventions and uptakes. 4)Shares teaching material for teaching critical fan pedagogies.'
A box of text that reads 'Critical Digital Pedagogy' A box of text. The header reads 'Critical Digital Pedagogy' and the rest reads,' I incorporate critical digital pedagogy in every facet of my teaching and mentorship. Critical digital pedagogy applies critical perspectives to digital environments and data by having learners engage with the political, social, and cultural implications at every level of the technological stack, from the hardware created to the documents we compose on. I received the 2019 Kairos Teaching Award for my commitment to critical digital pedagogy across the curriculum. I have taught: 1) Writing for Social Media -- syllabus available, 2) First Year Writing, 3) Advanced Writing in the Disciplines. My dream courses to teach include: 1) Social Media Composing, 2) Data and Coding Rhetorics, 3) Critical Fan Research Methods, 4) Digital Storytelling.'