My scholarly research focuses on the history of publishing, both from theoretical perspectives (using both cultural and rhetorical theory) and in pragmatics (typography, offset printing, online document management, new media). I am the [founding] director of the ISU Studio for New Media, and for twenty-eight years was the [founding] director of EServer.org.
I am currently writing a book tentatively titled Usable Genres (you can read the draft of the book proposal here). I am also researching learning management systems as a form of material rhetoric, and investigating problems with contemporary theories of dialectical negotiation when applied to cloud and virtualized hosting platforms.
Selected Examples of Recent Publications
Sauer, David K. and Geoffrey Sauer. “Chapter 19: Drama.” In American Literary Scholarship: 2019. Gary Scharnhorst, ed. Duke University Press, 2021.
Sauer, Geoffrey. ‘Applying Usability and User Experience within Academic Contexts: Why Progress Remains Slow.’ Technical Communication Quarterly. Volume 27, 2018 – Issue 4.
Sauer, Geoffrey. “Multimedia Labs as Content Incubators.” Intercom. September/October 2011.
Sauer, Geoffrey. “A Commentary on Edmond H. Weiss’s ‘Egoless Writing: Improving Quality by Replacing Artistic Impulse with Engineering Discipline.‘” In ACM Journal of Computer Documentation. Vol. 26, No. 1: February 2002. pp. 17-22.
Sauer, Geoffrey. “コミュニティ、コースウェア、知的財産権.” In オンライン・コミュニティ: ｅコマース、教育オンライン、 非営利オンライン 活動の最先端レポート (Online Communities: A Cutting-Edge Report on E-Commerce, Education Online, and Non-Profit Online Activities). Chris Werry and Miranda Mowbray, eds. Ken’ich Ikeda, Ed. Supervisor. Midori Shimoda, Kiichi Obata, Ko Ito and Yumiko Koiwa, translators. Tokyo: Pearson Education Japan, 2002. pp. 187-205.
Selected Examples of Recent Presentations
Sauer, Geoffrey. “Accompanying Usability and UX Through Its Adolescence to Maturity.” Keynote address to World Usability Day 2019 Held at SVSU University, November 2019.
Sauer, Geoffrey. “Building Digital Humanities Projects To Last: Advice from Someone Who’s Run DH projects for 27 Years .” (invited.) Digital Innovation and Scholarship in the Social Sciences and Humanities Symposium 2017, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC. March 2017.
Selected Online Publications
EServer.org. Director, 1990-2017.
A digital humanties cooperative, with more than 227 editors from around the world, collaborating to publish over fifty collections in the arts and humanities.
over 2 million visitors (13 million hits) per month; 20.5 million visitors (142 million hits) in 2015
Antislavery Literature Project. Webmaster, 2005-2017.
Designed and created the content management system which runs a project which publishes a body of literature crucial to understanding the African American experience.
40,000 visitors (336,000 hits) per month
Bad Subjects. Member, Production Team, 1993-2017.
Served as the web designer and member of the editorial board of a cultural studies journal published on the web since 1993.
222,000 visitors (1.5 million hits) per month. Two new issues published in 2015.
Books. Webmaster, 1994-2017.
Built and published high-quality online editions of literary fiction and nonfiction book-length monographs free to all readers.
61,500 visitors (836,000 hits) per month
The David Mamet Review. Web Advisor, 2003-2017
The journal of the academic David Mamet Society, a group dedicated to studying contemporary drama from a literary perspective. Designed their content management system and advise the journal’s two webmasters.
20,500 visitors (124,000 hits) per month
EServer Technical Communication Library. Director, 2001-2017
Built and supervised an online resource for technical, scientific, and professional communicators.
500,000 visitors (4 million hits) per month
Lectures on Demand. Director, 1996-2017
Created and posted content to a site which publishes streaming audio and video lectures in the arts and humanities.
16,000 visitors (133,000 hits) per month
Looking Backward. Editor, 1996
Developed a scholarly online edition of Edward Bellamy’s 1881 utopian science fiction novel.
7,500 visitors (18,000 hits) per month
Orange Journal. Webmaster, 2002-2017.
Built, designed, edited and published a student journal in technical communication.
21,500 visitors (111,500 hits) per month. Three new issues in 2015.
Oroonoko; or, the Royal Slave. Editor, 1996
Developed a scholarly online edition of Aphra Behn’s 1688 three-act play, the first by a professional English woman dramatist.
2,000 visitors (9,000 hits) per month
Project Yao (覞工程). Member, Editorial Board, 2008-2017
Designed and collaborated in the development of an open-access searchable bibliography of American literature translated into and published in Chinese.
34,500 visitors (133,000 hits) per month
The Thoreau Reader. Webmaster, 2001-2017.
79,000 visitors (231,500 hits) per month
STC Central Iowa Community. Web Advisor, 2004-2013.
Developed the CMS-based community website for a local chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. Advised the subsequent webmasters for the site.