Team Members

				Robert Asen is a Professor of Rhetoric in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. His research explores debates over social policy in the United States. He is interested in the impact of political and economic inequalities on these debates, and he has developed models of inclusive public deliberation. Asen is the author of Invoking the Invisible Hand: Social Security and the Privatization Debates (2009) and Visions of Poverty: Welfare Policy and Political Imagination (2002).

				Deb Gurke has over 15 years of experience in public education in Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin including service on the Stillwater, Minnesota board of education. She has a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin - Madison where she studied school organizations and rhetoric, specifically the role the community plays in policy decisions. As the Director of Board Governance at the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Gurke works to develop board member's capacity to lead their districts' efforts to implement change that will lead to improved student achievement.

				Pam Conners is a Ph.D. candidate (Rhetoric) in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Her research focuses on representations of class and labor in public policy debates. She is currently working on her dissertation, "The Purchase of Home," which examines how deliberation over housing policy in the United States privileges homeownership and functions to reinforce socio-economic inequalities.

				Elsa Gumm is a Ph.D. candidate (Rhetoric) in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Her previous work has examined civil rights discourse and religious rhetoric. Currently she is working on her dissertation, which will account for the role(s) that religion may have to play in arguments for world citizenship, paying particular attention to discourse among international public intellectuals as well as among national and local advocates who campaign for social justice based on religious principles.

				Michelle Murray is a Ph.D. candidate (Rhetoric) in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She is interested in how China is understood, interpreted, and portrayed by policy makers and media outlets within the United States. Her research examines US - Sino relations via the analytic lenses of diplomatic and visual rhetorics. She is currently working on a dissertation that examines Western media characterizations of China during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

				Ryan Solomon is a Ph.D. candidate (Rhetoric) in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He is currently working on a dissertation exploring the relationship between particular cultural beliefs about AIDS and the broader AIDS controversy in South Africa. He is also interested in thinking through the ethical implications of argument and believes argument is a crucial mode of communication because of its role in mitigating social conflict. As such, he believes learning to argue "well" is a vital aspect of the practice of citizenship.