Gordon Stables is the director of debate and forensics and a clinical assistant professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication.
His responsibilities include directing the
Trojan Debate Squad (TDS), USC's nationally competitive debate program. The debate squad was USC's first chartered student organization and it has developed a tradition of excellence in intercollegiate competition. He oversees the development of squad argument culture, recruits both undergraduate and graduate students, manages the squad's travel and directs the squad's scholarship program. He is also heavily involved with USC's efforts to support urban debate league initiatives in the Los Angeles.
He is an active member of the collegiate debate community and currently serves in a number of national leadership positions. He is the incoming president of the
Cross-Examination Debate Association (CEDA) and the executive secretary of the
National Debate Tournament. He is also the chair of CEDA's
Topic Selection Committee. This committee is responsible for the development of the year-long annual intercollegiate debate topic. He is also a co-chair of the upcoming Debate Summit and Development Conference hosted by Wake Forest University.
He teaches a variety of courses, including Public Deliberation, Argumentation and Advocacy, Political Communication, Communication as a Liberal Art and a graduate seminar in argumentation for the Public Diplomacy MA program. Gordon's teaching reflects his research interests; the study of argumentation and rhetoric in the context of significant public policy controversies, with an emphasis on military policy. Both his argumentation seminars for undergraduate students and Public Diplomacy MA students focus heavily on the challenges facing public deliberation of the War on Terror, the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also committed to the use of new technologies to improve the classroom experience. The Public Diplomacy seminar , for example, utilizes powerpoint, not traditional papers, as the primary course product. His recent political campaign course emphasized the role of technology in modern campaigns and required students to blog as part of their class participation.
Gordon also has an interest in international education. He teaches USC's International Communication Studies Program (ICS) which allows undergraduate students to meet with media, governmental and private organizations in London, Paris, Prague and Rome during a summer program. He also takes part in USC's international program planning as Annenberg's representative to the university off-campus (formerly overseas) study panel.
Originally from New Jersey, he and his wife Jennifer both received their Ph.D.'s from the University of Georgia.
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