David Zarefsky

Debate, rhetoric, and argumentation are some of David Zarefsky’s favorite subjects to speak on, write about, and study. At his professorship at Northwestern University, his primary focus in most of his courses is U.S. public discourse. He first developed his audiobook called “Argumentation: The Study Of Effective Reasoning” for his students there.

However, that work has reached a much wider audience since publication. His success as an author and scholar helped secure him the role of president for three communication and rhetoric associations at different points during his tenure. He has also served as chair and dean in two different departments at Northwestern.

His interest in argumentation began in college when he joined the debate team. As a post-graduate, he stayed on as coach. Zarefsky’s volume of scholarly articles is at least 10 times larger than that of his books. Still highly driven as a professor emeritus, he constantly has new publications in the works.