Christian Lundberg

B.A., University of Redlands

Master of Divinity, Emory University

Ph.D., Northwestern University, Communication Studies

Research Interests Teaching and research interests include theories of the public and public discourse, public speaking, rhetorical theory, debate and deliberation, critical theory, and Cultural Studies. Dr. Lundberg also teaches the First Year Seminar “Think, Speak, Argue,” which focuses on debate and public speaking skills as pedagogical tools and as critical components of democratic life.

My current research focuses on theories of the public as a social and discursive form, and on the animating principles for public discourses and identities. I am interested in these questions both at the level of theories of the public, and at the level of specific practices of public discourse. At the level of theories of the public, my book, Lacan in Public: Psychoanalysis and the Science of Rhetoric (University of Alabama Press, 2012), works through the implications of Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis for thinking the rhetorical character of publics as social formations and of the public discourses that circulate within them. In addition, I have written a number pieces that unpack forms of discourse constituting specific publics, with special attention to the intersection between publics and religious discourse in Islam and Evangelical Christianity.

At the level of specific practices of public discourse and pedagogy, my work focuses on rhetorical theory, and on debate and public speaking as critical democratic forms. I have also authored or am in the process of writing a number of textbooks relating to rhetoric, public speaking, and public deliberation, including The Essential Guide to Rhetoric (Bedford St. Martins, 2007) and a Public Speaking textbook with Cengage Learning titled Public Speaking: Choices and Responsibility (2014).