Studies in Debate and Oratory
Editorial Mission
Oratory and debating have historically been considered crucial approaches to conveying ideas and motivating action. Oratory’s relationship to persuasion extends from ancient times to the present, and debate has traditionally been associated with the intense examination of propositions to discover the most cogent or best paths of action available to us. Both activities have played a central role in the development of communication studies over the past century but currently exist at the margins of scholarship in that discipline and beyond. This journal proposal begins from the assumption that the practice, performance, and role of oratory and debate, taken from many different methodological and epistemological positions, should play a more significant role in ongoing conversations about interdisciplinary approaches to civic education and action. Indeed, as practices, oratory and debating cannot be fully examined via theory. Nor can they be understood by simply practicing them. Studies in Debate and Oratory considers both arts under the rubric of praxis, that is, action that emerges from theoretical insight. Practices refine theory, and theory keeps practice focused and productive. Debating can not only reveal but can create knowledge. Oratory not only changes minds but opens the orator to changing their mind just as ideas change when articulated. The question of what sort of research can be produced through debating and speaking is ripe for scholarly interrogation and will frame the editorial mission of this journal.
Purpose and Aim
This journal aims to cultivate and produce scholarship that advances the practices and pedagogy of oratory and debate from historical, contemporary, theoretical, and practical perspectives. We see deep connections between the way human beings express ideas and arguments orally (before audiences) and the formation and creation of knowledge itself. We are suspicious of the idea that knowledge is either temporally or logically prior to expression as rhetoric. Investigation of these practices are investigations of epistemology not mere ornament or technique. The journal welcomes any and all submissions that examine the history, capacity, theory, practice, role, limits, or possibilities of the arts of oratory and debating. Such submissions can be situated in terms of case-studies, normative and/or prescriptive discussions of the aims of oratory and debate, or the application of the principles of oratory and debate to issues in civic education and action.