John Gallagher
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Professor

Biography

I research how writing technologies shape workflow habits to better understand ways that writers interact with their audiences. My work centers on denaturalizing everyday writing tools to improve how we write.

I focus on five main areas: (1) participatory writing (especially on social media), (2) writing interfaces and templates, (3) AI and machine learning communication, (4) natural language processing, and (5) STEM/engineering communication. My research draws on interviewing, user experience, data structuring, web scraping, and computational methods to explore how writers—especially scientists—interact with audiences and disseminate their work in digital environments.

Research Interests

  • Artificial intelligence          
  • Machine learning
  • Natural language processing
  • Science writing
  • Technical writing
  • Internet culture
  • Social media
  • Creator culture     
  • Interface design
  • Survey methods
  • Interview methods   

Courses Taught

  • BTW 250
  • BTW 490
  • ENGL 582
  • ENGL 380
  • ENGL 482

Additional Campus Affiliations

Professor, English
Professor, School of Information Sciences

Highlighted Publications

Gallagher, J. R. (2020). Update Culture and the Afterlife of Digital Writing. Utah State University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvvh85pr

Gallagher, J. R., & DeVoss, D. N. (Eds.) (2019). Explanation Points: Publishing in Rhetoric and Composition. Utah State University Press.

Gallagher, J. R. (2024). Case Study Research in the Digital Age. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003402169

Gallagher, J. R., Avgoustopoulos, R. E., Hamilton, A., & Seilkhanova, T. (2025). The challenges and writing practices of communicating artificial intelligence and machine learning in an era of hype. AI & Society, 40(4), 2895-2908. Article 100041. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-02049-0

Gallagher, J. R., & Wagner, K. (2024). Comparing Student and Writing Instructor Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty When Collaborators Are Artificial Intelligence or Human. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 38(3), 266-288. https://doi.org/10.1177/10506519241239937

View all publications on Illinois Experts

Recent Publications

Beveridge, A., Burnett, M., & Gallagher, J. R. (2026). Using Natural Language Processing to Rhetorically Contextualize Audiences: Vaccine Sentiment Analysis of Newspaper Comments, 2017–2023. Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, 9(1), 88-109. https://doi.org/10.5744/rhm.2026.2567

Gallagher, J. R., & Byrd, A. (2026). Crafting and designing AI-simulated audiences in the writing classroom. Computers and Composition, 80, Article 103007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2026.103007

Liu, Y., Gallagher, J., Sterman, S., & August, T. (2026). From Crafting Text to Crafting Thought: Grounding AI Writing Support to Writing Center Pedagogy. In N. Oliver, D. A. Shamma, H. Candello, P. Cesar, P. Lopes, A. Bozzon, T. Kosch, V. Liao, X. Ma, V. Artizzu, F. Draxler, G. Lopez, A. V. Reinschluessel, X. Tong, & P. O. Toups Dugas (Eds.), CHI 2026 - Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article 81 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings ). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790292

Gallagher, J. R., & Hernandez, A. P. (2025). Algorithmic Anthropomorphizing, Platform Gossip, and Backlashes: Aspirational Content Creators’ Narratives About YouTube’s Algorithm on Reddit. Social Media and Society, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251331761

Gallagher, J. R., Avgoustopoulos, R. E., Hamilton, A., & Seilkhanova, T. (2025). The challenges and writing practices of communicating artificial intelligence and machine learning in an era of hype. AI & Society, 40(4), 2895-2908. Article 100041. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-02049-0

View all publications on Illinois Experts