He specializes in comparative rhetoric, translingual composition, and professional writing. He recently defended his dissertation, which focuses on translingual histories in composition, specifically in the early 20th-century YMCA. Cummings has received several awards for his scholarship, including the Excellence in Graduate Scholarship Award at Indiana University in Fort Wayne and the Spiro-Peterson Award for Excellence in Graduate Scholarship at Miami University. His most recent publication appeared in The Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization.