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Debate

Kansas State Debate
219 Nichols Hall
Manhattan, KS, 66502

785-532-6875 Phone
785-532-3714 Fax

Coaching Staff

Alex McVey | Director

E-mail: jalexandermcvey@ksu.edu
Campus Office: 219 Nichols Hall 

McVey headshot

Education

PhD - Communication Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 2018
MA -  Communication, Baylor University, 2012
BA - Spanish, International Studies, Baylor University, 2012

Alex McVey is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and  Director of Debate at Kansas State University. Alex is a critical-cultural communication scholar whose research and pedagogy uses a variety of methods from rhetoric and media studies to examine how communication both contributes to and challenges social inequality. His current research project, Policing the Post-Racial, traces how the rhetorical dynamics of visual, surveillant, and digital media are impacting contemporary public conversations about racism in the criminal justice system. Looking at visual media texts such as memes, body-mounted police camera videos, and photoshopped Black Lives Matter protest signs, Policing the Post-Racial traces the contested communicative landscape of race and policing in the United States. His research has been published in outlets such as Rhetoric Review, Teaching Media Quarterly, Present Tense, and Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry.  Alex is also a dedicated teacher and debate coach with over a decade of experience coaching debate and forensics at the college, high school, and junior high levels. In 2022, Alex was awarded the Kansas Speech Communication Association's Collegiate Educator of the Year Award.

www.jamesalexandermcvey.com

 

William James (JT) Taylor | Assistant Director

E-mail:  wjtaylor@ksu.edu
Campus Office:  219 Nichols Hall

taylor headshot

Education

M.A., Communication Studies, Kansas State University (2013)
Concentrations:  Rhetoric, Qualitative Research
Thesis:  Visions of Space Exploration and Development: Perspectives from the “Private” Sector   


B.A, Integrated Studies, Emporia State University (2011)
Concentrations: Rhetoric, Media Studies, Critical Theory

Teaching

Small Group Discussion Methods
Public Speaking

Research

Taylor's areas of research include rhetorical criticism, food/culinary practices and culture, TV/film studies, argumentation and advocacy, and space exploration.

 

 Hannah Phelps | Graduate Coaching Assistant

E-mail: hmphelps@ksu.edu

Campus Office: Nichols 219

hannah heashot

Hannah debated for Weber State University for 4 years, qualifying to the NDT 3 times and making double-octafinals of CEDA twice. Their main research interests include argumentation and advocacy, gendered communication, cultural communication differences. Outside of research and debate she enjoys sci-fi and fantasy media, cooking and baking shows, and crochet. Their passion for debate stems from a belief in the power debate can have in generating social change and empowering its students. 

 

Nicholas Aranda | Graduate Coaching Assistant

E-mail: naranda@ksu.edu
Campus Office:  219 Nichols Hall

nick headshot

Nicholas Aranda is a graduate student & debate coach studying rhetoric & culture at Kansas State University. A graduate of Regis University, Nicholas has degrees in Philosophy, Peace studies, & communication. His primary research interests lie at the intersection of rhetoric, culture, & materialism; though, Nicholas writes, teaches, and publishes across an array of philosophical and communicative areas including technology, race, gender, sexuality, critique, and conflict.