Dr. Brian Lain

Research Interests:
20th Century Rhetorical Criticism and Theory: Material Rhetoric and Culture. Visual Rhetorics and Culture. Ideological Criticism. The Politics of Representation. Multiculturalism, Community and Identity. Collective Memory and Commemorative Culture.

Materialism and Poststructuralism: Ideology, Power, and Rhetoric. The problem of ideology in a postmodern world. The poststructuralist critique of ideology. Foucault's critique of power.

Japanese American Rhetorics: Commemorations of Internment. The Japanese American National Museum. Japanese American Reparations Movement. Japanese American Autobiographies. Photographic Archives of Internment.

Notable Activities:

Director of Debate
Secretary, Visual Communication Division, National Communication Association
AFA West Representative, National Debate Tournament Committee

Recent Publications and/or Productions:

Lain, B., & Anderson-Lain, K. (in press). Networking debate and civic engagement: Measuring the impact of high school debate camp. In C. Winkler (Ed.), Networking Argument: Selected Works from the 20th NCA/AFA Alta Conference on Argumentation.

Lain, B., Anderson, K., & Oliver, L. (2017). Making debate normal: Different audiences and debate's pedagogical mission. Contemporary Argumentation & Debate.

Essay. (2006). "Remembering Protest, Protesting Memory: The Histories and Uses of Japanese American Internment Resistance." Critical Problems in Argumentation: Proceedings from the Thirteenth NCA/AFA Conference on Argumentation, Alta, UT. Ed. Charles A. Willard. pp. 434-442.

Co-Authored Essay with Joseph P. Zompetti. (2005). "Kritiking as Argumentative Praxis." Speaker and Gavel, v. 42, 13-27.

Essay. (2004). "American Uses of Japanese American Memory: How Internment Narratives Are Put into Discourse." Preceedings from the Second Tokyo Conference on Argumentation., Tokyo, Japan. August 3-5, 2004.

Teaching:
Comm 2140
Comm 3840
Comm 5340