Thomas Goodnight

G. Thomas Goodnight served as Director of Doctoral Studies at the Annenberg School, USC, from 2003 to 2013. Over this time, the program grew from 20 students in residence to more than a hundred. It became and remains a top-ranked international communications program. Goodnight also directed an outstanding doctoral program at Northwestern University and was on its faculty from 1975 through 2002. He has advised more than 50 doctoral candidates. He sits as a senior fellow for the Public Diplomacy Center at USC. As a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Communication & Journalism, he met with communication faculty building a doctoral program at Católica University, in Santiago, Chile. He also has been a visiting scholar at Fudan University, China, and Meiji University, Japan. In 2014 he received the NCA Distinguished Scholar Award, and in 2013, the Alta Argumentation Senior Scholar award. In 2006, the International Society for the Study of Argument accorded him recognition for lifetime contributions. He has been named one of the top five scholars in the area of argumentation over the past 50 years. His research includes social, historical, linguistic, and network approaches to argumentation, rhetoric and communication. Specific topics for research, teaching, and project design include: rhetoric; public address and political economy; the rhetoric of science; social theory, controversy and bubbles; and civic engagement. Goodnight volunteers with the Good Steward Global Initiative. This year and next, his fieldwork and collaborations take him to Uganda, Switzerland, Venice, Ontario, Chile, and China. In the last year, he has directed dissertations on post-traumatic stress, autism, and neo-soul.