Dr. Mark Hlavacik

GAB 320C
Faculty
Associate Professor

GAB 320A

mark.hlavacik@unt.edu

UNT Eagle

Professional Bio

Dr. Hlavacik joined the faculty at UNT in 2014 after completing his PhD at the Pennsylvania State University. His research examines the ethics and tactics of public argument with a concern for their effects on public policy, civic culture, and education. Dr. Hlavacik has published scholarship on the rhetoric of education reform, social movements, the presidency, and civic education. In the Department of Communication Studies, he is a member of the rhetoric faculty, the graduate faculty, and he is the faculty advisor to the COMM Library.

 

Grant

"Critical Inquiry in Social Studies Education: Directions for Research and Practice,” Daniel Krutka, Jenni Conrad, Jennifer Gallagher, & Mark Hlavacik, American Education Research Association, Research Conference Award, Funded, $31,480, Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2024, Co-PI.

 

Books

Mark Hlavacik, Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars (University of Chicago Press, 2025).

Mark Hlavacik, Assigning Blame: The Rhetoric of Education Reform (Harvard Education Press, 2016).

 

Articles & Chapters

  • Mark Hlavacik, "From Cultural Artifact to Culture War: The Declaration of Independence and the Fight for Control of the US Civics Classroom," in Deliberating the Declaration, ed. by Mary Stuckey (Penn State University Press, 2025).
  • Mark Hlavacik and Jack Schneider, “Talking Back to the Failing Schools Narrative,” Phi Delta Kappan (September, 2024).
  • Daniel G. Krutka and Mark Hlavacik, “How Do We Discuss Controversial Issues?: Three Approaches to Framing Critical Inquiries,” Social Education 86, no. 3 (2022): 197-203.
  • Mark Hlavacik and Daniel G. Krutka, “Deliberation Can Wait: How Civic Litigation Makes Inquiry Critical,” Theory & Research in Social Education 49, no. 3 (2021): 418-448.
  • Mark Hlavacik and Jack Schneider, “The Echo of Reform Rhetoric: Arguments About National and Local School Failure in the News, 1984-2016,” American Journal of Education 127, no. 4 (2021): 627-655.
  • Mark Hlavacik, “The Rhetorical Secretary,” Phi Delta Kappan 101, no. 4 (2019): 8-13.
  • Brian Lain, Mark Hlavacik, Matea Ivanovic, and Brian Ontiveros-Kersch, “Recovering Debate Coach as Civic Figure: Highly Active Debate Coaches, Their Participation in Civic Outreach Activities, and Reward Perceptions,” in Recovering Argument, ed. by Randall Lake (New York: Routledge, 2018), 369-374.
  • Mark Hlavacik, Brian Lain, Matea Ivanovic, and Brian Ontiveros-Kersch, “The State of College Debate According to a Survey of Its Coaches: Data to Ground the Discussion of Debate and Civic Engagement,” Communication Education 65, no. 4 (2016): 382-396.
  • Dana Mitra, Bryan Mann, and Mark Hlavacik, “Opting Out: Parents Creating Contested Spaces to Challenge Standardized Tests,” Education Policy Analysis Archives 24 (2016): 1-24.
  • Joseph Rhodes and Mark Hlavacik, “Imagining Moral Presidential Speech: Barack Obama’s Niebuhrian Nobel,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 18, no. 4 (2015): 471-503.
  • Mark Hlavacik, “The Democratic Origins of Teachers Union Rhetoric: Margaret Haley’s Speech at the 1904 NEA Convention,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 15, no. 4 (2012): 499-524.
  • Heather Adams, Jeremy Engels, Michael J. Faris, Debra Hawhee, and Mark Hlavacik, “Deliberation in the Midst of Crisis,” Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies 12, no. 4 (2012): 342-45.

 

Courses

  • Culture War Rhetoric, COMM 5440.
  • Rhetorical Methods, COMM 5340.
  • The Rhetoric of Other Worlds, COMM 4345.
  • Rhetorical Theory, COMM 4040.
  • Propaganda & Persuasion, COMM 3445.
  • Rhetorical Criticism, COMM 3340.
  • Public Speaking, COMM 2040.