JCU to Welcome Back Professor Craig Smith in Summer Session I

Professor Craig Smith

John Cabot University is pleased to welcome Professor Craig Smith back to our campus to teach LAW/COM 271: Argumentation and Debate during our Summer I session.

This hybrid communications and law course provides advanced communications and political science students with the opportunity to study the decision-making process structured around reasoned discourse. Students will examine the formal structures of debate, including the evaluation of proof, the technique of advocacy, the fallacies of reason, and specific argumentation strategies. The class will also allow students to understand the foundations upon which legal briefs are made.

An expert in speech writing and debate, Dr. Smith’s career witnessed two speechwriting roles in the White House for both President Gerald Ford and President George H.W. Bush. He has also testified before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and state and local governments regarding the freedom of expression, and has served as a consultant to CBS News for convention, election night, and inaugural coverage.

Dr. Smith has published eighteen books and over 60 scholarly articles, and his academic career has taken him across the United States and Europe. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at the University of California at Santa Barbara, his Master’s degree from the City University of New York, and his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. He served as Director of Debate at both San Diego State University and the University of Virginia, a Board of Trustee member of the California State University system, and is currently Director of the Center for First Amendment Studies and a professor of Communication Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

Dr. Smith has received numerous awards for his work, including the National Speaker’s Association’s Outstanding Professor of the Year Award (1998), California State Long Beach’s Outstanding Professor Award (2000) and Hardeman Award for Academic Leadership (2006), and the National Communication Association’s Douglas Ehninger Award (2010) and Robert O’Neill Award on three occasions. Dr. Smith recently won the Bruce Gronbeck Award for distinguished research on political communication for his book Confessions of a Presidential Speechwriter.