Faculty bio | 541-346-4198

David Frank is an academic expert in debate, rhetoric, critical reasoning and public address. David’s research explores the role rhetoric and argumentation plays to resolve conflict without violence. He has published on rhetorical history and theory, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the rhetoric of Barack Obama, the use of the Holocaust to portray evil in American film, and on the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide. 

Recent Media: 
'Self-deport or be detained': Fear grips foreign students travelling in US as Trump escalates anti-Palestine speech crackdown (The New Arab, April 1, 2025)
Biden’s stutter surges into the presidential campaign (The Washington Post, March 21, 2024)
Biden, often defined by his words, faces his biggest (and strangest) speech yet (The Washington Post, Aug. 16, 2020)
Sanders exit opened door for Obama to endorse Biden – and offer up his rhetorical skills (The Conversation, April 15, 2020)
Speeches, both scripted and off the cuff, turn Biden’s campaign around (The Conversation, March 9, 2020)
A major democracy fights to maintain the rule of law – this time, it’s Israel (The Conversation, Nov. 21, 2019)
Hillary Clinton gets some old advice for her historic speech: Be yourself (USA Today, July 28, 2016)
Experts: Values can trump data in gun debate (PolitiFact, Oct. 8, 2015)
A professor of rhetoric explains how Obama’s Charleston eulogy shows his evolution on guns (The Trace, June 26, 2015)
For Obama, Charleston eulogy a moment to comfort a shocked nation (McClatchy DC, June 25, 2015)
Obama's oil move: Policy or politics? (Politico, July 2, 2011)