Vanderbilt Debate Program

The Vanderbilt Debate team had a very successful season.
 
The overall squad (combining Varsity, JV, and Novice) finished the season ranked 5th in the nation in the American Debate Association (ADA) cumulative standings and 11th in the nation in the National Debate Tournament (NDT) cumulative standings.
 
Cameron Norris and Nick Brown were the American Debate Association National Champions. They also received Vanderbilt’s first ever First Round at Large bid to the National Debate Tournament, finishing the season ranked in the top ten.
 
Saad Rehman and Karl Gressley were National Champions in the Novice division of the American Debate Association (ADA). Rehman was also the top Novice speaker at the ADA National tournament.
 
Vanderbilt also won all three divisions of the SEC regional debate tournament. ML Sandoz was named SEC Debate Director of the Year for 2011. Butt was named SEC Debate Coach of the Year.

The Vanderbilt debate team began working with the Nashville Debate League this year. The NDL is a collection of high school debate programs, many starting debate programs for the first time. Vanderbilt  was the host for the Nashville Urban Debate League in the spring.

Updates on CMST Faculty

Associate Professor Bonnie J. Dow is currently serving as chair of the department. Professor Dow's scholarship is concerned with feminist discourse and feminist portrayal within media and mass mediated messages. Her book Prime Time Feminism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), and exploration of the framing of feminism on television, has won major book awards from three different academic organizations. Dow received the 2009 Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award from the National Communication Association and the 2009 Ernest A. Jones Faculty Advisor Award from the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt. Professor Dow delivered the Kirt Ritter Lecture in Political Rhetoric at Texas A & M University in March:  "Michelle Obama, the First Family, and Postfeminist, Postracial, Familialism."  She has served as Co-chair of the 2010-2011 Fellows Program on "Representation and Social Change" at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.

After four years as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Science, John Sloop will become Senior Associate Dean for Faculty.  He has completed his term as editor of the Routledge-NCA journal,Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. Professor Sloop continues to publish essays, book chapters and reviews and his 2004 book, Disciplining Gender was awarded the 2005 James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address. His most recent research (and next book project) focuses on the rhetorical and cultural intersections between transportation, media, gender and citizenship. Sloop was invited to Wabash College to give the prestigious W. Norwood Brigance Lecture.

Kassian Kovalcheck serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies and served as parliamentarian of the Faculty Senate again this year.  He continues to teach his familiar courses, Values in Modern Communication and Rhetorical Criticism, as well as first year and senior seminars, and Ireland on Film in the Maymester.  Kovalcheck recently delivered a paper in Galway, Ireland, to the American Conference on Irish Studies, "The Archbishop and the Good Englishman:  Richard Whately and George Poulette Scrope."

Associate Professor Vanessa Beasley (a graduate of this department) researches  U.S. presidents' rhetoric, public discourse and U.S. political culture, media and politics, gender, race, and ethnic diversity in contemporary U.S. politics, and political rhetoric on immigration.  Professor Beasley has completed her term as book review editor of Rhetoric and Public Affairs.  Beasley directs Vanderbilt's Program for Career Development for young faculty.

Assistant Professor Claire Sisco King won a Venture Fund Grant for her work and was a fellow of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities for the 2008-2009 school year, exploring the topic, "New Directions in Trauma Studies."  Her book, Washed in Blood:  Male Sacrifice, Trauma and the Cinema, will be published in the fall by Rutgers University Press.  Professor King won the 2010 Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching.  She has received a Creative Campus Innovation grant to fund innovative teaching practices and off-campus experiences in CMST 235 Communicating Gender for the fall of 2011. 

Assistant Professor Paul Stob has been with the Department for two years and has developed an enthusiastic following among our students. His book manuscript, William James and the Art of Popular Statement, has been accepted for publication by Michigan State University Press.

John English received the 2007 award for Excellence in Teaching given to Senior Lecturers.  Professor English continues to teach Public Speaking, Persuasion, and Organizational and Managerial Communication.

Carole Kenner continues to teach her popular CMST 101 - Interpersonal Communication. 

M. L. Sandoz was named SEC Debate Director of the Year for 2011, adding to her previous awards, the National Debate Tournament Coach of the Year Award in 2010, Critic of the Year in 2000 and CEDA Coach of the Year in 2003. 

In 2010 the department added Neil Butt as SeniorLecturer and Assistant Director of Debate.  His primary research focus is argumentation and debate pedagogy, though he has also done work in argument theory, classical rhetoric, political communication, the rhetoric of social movements, and feminist criticism. Butt was named SEC Debate Coach of the Year for 2011.

 

John Sloop in the Dean's Office

After four years as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Science, John Sloop will become Senior Associate Dean for Faculty.  He has completed his term as editor of the Routledge-NCA journal,Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. Professor Sloop continues to publish essays, book chapters and reviews and his 2004 book, Disciplining Gender was awarded the 2005 James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address.  His most recent research (and next book project) focuses on the rhetorical and cultural intersections between transportation, media, gender and citizenship.  Sloop was invited to Wabash College to give the prestigious W. Norwood Brigance Lecture.

 

Chair of the Department

Associate Professor Bonnie J. Dow is currently serving as chair of the department.  Professor Dow's scholarship is concerned with feminist discourse and feminist portrayal within media and mass mediated messages.  Her book Prime Time Feminism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), and exploration of the framing of feminism on television, has won major book awards from three different academic organizations.  Dow received the 2009 Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award from the National Communication Association and the 2009 Ernest A. Jones Faculty Advisor Award from the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt.  Professor Dow delivered the Kirt Ritter Lecture in Political Rhetoric at Texas A & M University in March:  "Michelle Obama, the First Family, and Postfeminist, Postracial, Familialism."  She has served as Co-chair of the 2010-2011 Fellows Program on "Representation and Social Change" at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.

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