Presentation Title: How Might Debates Matter beyond Effects?: Candidate Accountability and Performances of "Democratic Leadership"
Presenter: Dr. Kathryn M. Olson, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Lecture Date & Time: Tuesday, 10/11/16, 4 p.m.-5 p.m. in Greenpun Hall Auditorium
Abstract: This lecture focuses on functions that presidential debates might play for citizens beyond particular election outcomes, including requiring candidate performances of the values of democratic leadership. Debates are sites for viewers to assess candidates as they enact accountability to the citizenry and attempt to negotiate Americans’ paradoxical expectations that an acceptable president act simultaneously as “one of the people” and “a superior leader.” Such performances re-affirm our democracy’s values even as they test presidential aspirants.
As part of the Presidential Debate Lecture Series, Dr. Kathryn Olson, professor and chair of the Communication Department in the College of Letters & Science at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee will discuss how presidential debates might function or matter to citizens beyond the popular questions of debates’ effects on particular election outcomes or voter learning.
Olson uses rhetorical criticism and argumentation to examine American texts, issues, movements, images, and debates with public consequences.
Link to Dr. Olson's faculty page: https://uwm.edu/communication/people/olson-kathryn
Link to Dr. Olson's CV: https://uwm.edu/communication/wp-content/uploads/sites/150/2014/11/olson_cv.pdf