About BEN

Dr. Ben Voth is professor of Rhetoric and Director of Debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He is the author of eight books on the power of rhetoric, debate and political argument. He is the debate fellow for the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation. Voth has done consulting work with the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., the U.S. State Department in Rwanda. His international work to equip individuals to have their voice includes nations such as: Nigeria, Rwanda, India, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Ireland. Professor Voth has won the Rohrer award given for the top research monograph in argumentation and debate twice (2015 and 2022). He has coached more than ten world champions in speech and debate, more than twenty national champions in speech and debate, and more than forty state championships in speech and debate in a professonal career spanning more than three decades. His teaching and research mission is to equip individuals to have their voice. Dr. Voth’s work has been cited in the Washington Post, the Rush Limbaugh radio show, the New York Times, Newsweek, C-SPAN, and many other national and international outlets.  

Dr. Voth completed his undergraduate and masters degrees in Communication Study and Journalism at Baylor University in 1990. His masters thesis focused on the global warming rhetoric of George Bush senior and was directed by Dr. Rich Edwards. He completed his PhD in Communication Study— specializing in argumentation and rhetoric— at the University of Kansas in 1994. His dissertation focused on the function of the wall separating church and state as a paradigmatic metaphor and was directed by Dr. Robert Rowland. He was the director of speech and debate at Miami University in Ohio for 14 years from 1994- 2008.