HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

David H. Zarefsky (born 1946) is an American communication scholar with research specialties in
rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
al history and criticism. He is professor emeritus at
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
. He is a past president of the
National Communication Association The National Communication Association (NCA) of the United States is a not-for-profit association of academics in the field of communication. Organization NCA is governed by the Legislative Assembly, which meets during the NCA Annual Conventi ...
(USA) and the
Rhetoric Society of America The Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) is an academic organization for the study of rhetoric. The Society's constitution calls for it to research rhetoric in all relevant fields of study, identify new areas of study, encourage experimentation in te ...
. Among his publications are six books and over 70 scholarly articles concerned with American public
discourse Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. F ...
(both historical and contemporary),
argumentation An argument is a series of sentences, statements, or propositions some of which are called premises and one is the conclusion. The purpose of an argument is to give reasons for one's conclusion via justification, explanation, and/or persu ...
,
rhetorical criticism Rhetorical criticism analyzes the symbolic artifacts of discourse—the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate. Rhetorical analysis shows how the artifacts work, how well they work, and ho ...
, and
public speaking Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...
are books on the Lincoln-Douglas debates and on the rhetoric of the war on poverty during the Johnson administration. His lectures on argumentation and rhetoric can be heard in a course for
The Teaching Company The Teaching Company, doing business as The Great Courses, formerly Wondrium, is a Media (communication), media production company which produces Education, educational, video, and audio content in the form of courses, documentaries, and series ...
.


Early education and forensics career

As a member of the forensics team a
Bellaire High School
in Houston, Texas, Zarefsky won first place in th
National Forensic League's
Oratory competition in 1964. His brother, also a Bellaire and Northwestern alumnus, is U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefksy. He enrolled as an undergraduate student at Northwestern University later that year, beginning a highly successful career as an intercollegiate debate competitor. Zarefsky earned National Debate Tournament (NDT) individual top speaker honors in 1968. While pursuing a major from Northwestern's Department of Communication Studies, Zarefsky also took courses in English, Political Science, and History. Following completion of his B.S., Zarefsky stayed at Northwestern to pursue advanced degrees in Speech and coach the debate team. During this period, his teams were regularly recognized as among the best in the nation, with the pair of Eliot Mincberg and Ron Marmer winning the 1973 NDT. As a debate coach and judge, Zarefsky earned a reputation for his systematic and thorough approach. For example, he "sat for a full half hour reviewing his flow chart" before rendering the pivotal decision in the 1969 NDT semifinal round between Harvard University and Loyola University. He made up for difficulty in spotting differences in the makes and models of cars by scanning university parking lots to find the license plate of his team's vehicle at any given tournament. Zarefsky pioneered a policy debate judging paradigm called "hypothesis testing," which spells out how debate judges can draw metaphorically upon the scientific method's process of weighing scientific conjectures and refutations. Upon his retirement as Director of Forensics in 1975, Zarefsky was voted by his peers as the second best coach of the decade during the 1970s.


Research and teaching

Two of Zarefsky's books have won the Winans-Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric Rhetoric and Public Address, an award of the National Communication Association. Zarefsky has taught courses in the study of American public discourse, with a special focus on the pre-Civil War years and on the pre-Civil War years and on the 1960s. He also has taught courses in argumentation theory, persuasion, and public speaking. On thirteen different occasions he was named to the student government's honor roll for distinguished teaching. Zarefsky also has two video courses, "Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words" and "Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning," marketed by The Teaching Company. Some of Zarefsky's more notable students include:
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
Founding Law School Dean
Erwin Chemerinsky Erwin Chemerinsky (born May 14, 1953) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of U.S. constitutional law and federal civil procedure. Since 2017, Chemerinsky has been the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Previously, he was th ...
;
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. courts of appeals, ...
federal appellate judge Merrick B. Garland; and former
White House Chief of Staff The White House chief of staff is the head of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, a position in the federal government of the United States. The chief of staff is a Political appointments in the United States, politi ...
and former
Mayor of Chicago The mayor of Chicago is the Chief executive officer, chief executive of city Government of Chicago, government in Chicago, Illinois, the List of United States cities by population, third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsib ...
Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician, advisor, diplomat, and former investment banker who most recently served as List of ambassadors of the United States to Japan, United States ambassador to Japan from 2022 ...
. Asked about Emanuel's reputation for ruthlessness, Zarefsky was quoted in ''The Daily Northwestern'' as saying, "I think it can be applied to him in a positive sense because he's just very determined to achieve his goals."


Administrative leadership

Zarefsky joined the Northwestern faculty in 1968 and rose through the ranks, achieving promotion to Professor in 1982. He also has held a series of administrative appointments, including Chair of the Department of Communication Studies (1975–83), Associate Dean of the School of Speech (1983–88), and from 1988 to 2000, Dean of the School of Speech (later renamed the School of Communication), a 12-year tenure notable for its length among Northwestern deans serving during that era.Sheila Burt
"Dean Tenures Shorten as Rules Change,"
''The Daily Northwestern,'' January 14, 2004
In 1993 Zarefsky served as president of the National Communication Association and in 2001 he received its Distinguished Service Award. He held the presidency of the Central States Communication in 1986–87. In 2006–07 he served as president of the Rhetoric Society of America. He has held numerous leadership positions in the American Forensic Association, whose journal he edited from 1977 to 1980. From 1984 to 1989 he was the Director of the National Debate Tournament.


Recent publications

*"Making the Case for War: Colin Powell at the United Nations," Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 10 (Summer 2007), 275–302. *"Strategic Maneuvering through Persuasive Definitions: Implications for Dialectic and Rhetoric," Argumentation, 20 (2006), 399–416. *"The U.S. and the World: Unexpressed Premises of American Exceptionalism," Proceedings of the Sixth Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation (Amsterdam: Sic Sat, 2007), 1567–1571. *Sizing Up Rhetoric, co-edited with Elizabeth Benacka (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2008). *Public Speaking: Strategies for Success, 5th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2008).


References


External links


David Zarefsky - Communication Studies, School of Communication, Northwestern University
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zarefsky, David 1946 births Living people Northwestern University School of Communication alumni Northwestern University faculty Rhetoric theorists