ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Rhetoric of Health & Medicine (RHM) can and should be recognized for its methodological contributions, contributions that include new or extended concepts, hybrid forms of inquiry and analysis, and self-reflexive forms of engagement. These contributions help to answer Hartelius' call for what distinguishes RHM, as well as what it can offer back to rhetorical studies, writ large, and other areas. Rhetoricians of health and medicine have been influenced by and have adapted methodologies, theories, and research findings from the following: other interdisciplinary areas, such as medical and health humanities, science and technology studies (STS), and cultural studies. The ecology metaphor can account for methodological experimentation and responsiveness to complex phenomena and sites that scholars in RHM may study. The chapter argues that theory building should be recognized as an important methodological goal and practice for RHM scholarship, and that it should not be viewed as antithetical to area's careful attention to context-specific embodied and material practices.
