Presentation Title: Obama/Romney Debate
Presenter: Dr. David Zarefsky, Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University
Lecture Date & Time: Thursday, 9/8/16 at 1 p.m.-2 p.m. in Greenpun Hall Auditorium
Abstract: Although expected to dominate the 2012 debates, President Obama had a disappointing performance in the first debate. That is widely agreed, but there are several different views of exactly what went wrong. By examining the text of the debate, Dr. Zarefsky will try to show more specifically the nature of the President’s trouble. Then he will look at the second debate, widely understood as a “comeback” performance, and will consider whether and how it addressed the difficulties exposed in the first debate.
As part of the UNLV Presidential Debate Lecture Series Dr. David Zarefsky, professor emeritus of the Northwestern University School of Communication, will present a talk on the first and second 2012 debates between President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. Zarefsky will discuss what led to President Obama’s poor initial performance and his "comeback" in the second debate.
David Zarefsky has taught courses in the history and criticism of U.S. public discourse, with a special focus on the pre-Civil War period and on the 1960s, and also has taught courses in argumentation and in Presidential rhetoric. Among his publications as well as ten other books and over 120 scholarly articles concerned with American public discourse (both historical and contemporary), argumentation, rhetorical criticism, and public speaking are books on the Lincoln-Douglas debates and on the rhetoric of the war on poverty during the Johnson administration. He is a past president of the Rhetoric Society of America (2006-2007, 2010-2011), the National Communication Association (1993) and the Central States Communication Association (1986-1987). He has twice received the Winans-Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address and has been named a Distinguished Scholar by NCA. He currently is working on two book-length projects, one concerning President Johnson's speech in which he announced his withdrawal from the 1968 Presidential race, and the other a collection of essays on Abraham Lincoln’s rhetoric.
Link to Dr. Zarefsky's faculty page at Northwestern University: https://www.communication.northwestern.edu/faculty/DavidZarefsky
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