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Dr. John Gossett Office phone: 565-2718
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Dr. Gossett came to North Texas in 1981 as the Director of Debate and served in that capacity for ten years, bringing national recognition to the department and the university. Under his leadership, North Texas debate teams won more than twenty intercollegiate debate tournaments, won several awards for outstanding speaking, and qualified for the National Debate Tournament (NDT) nine times. In 1996, one of Dr. Gossett’s teams finished as an octafinalist at the NDT. An enthusiastic supporter of college debate, he served two terms on the NDT Board of Trustees. In 1988, Dr. Gossett was chosen to serve as department chair, a position he held for 17 years. He continues to serve as the department’s undergraduate adviser. During his tenure as chair, the department experienced significant growth in the number of undergraduate majors and an increase in prominence of two department programs: the North Texas Debate Team and the UNT Performance Interest Group. Dr. Gossett continues to work with department alumni learning how they are using their degrees in their professions and encouraging them to support department activities and scholarship programs. Dr. Gossett is respected by his students for creating a challenging, innovative, and nurturing environment in the classroom, and he views his role as a teacher as one who instills in students a sense of intellectual curiosity as well as personal, academic, and civic accountability. Dr. Gossett believes that education should not be confined to the walls of a classroom, and he seeks to create opportunities for students to travel to locations relevant to the subject matter in a course. In Spring 2002 and 2006, he led graduate students in a Freedom of Expression seminar to Washington, DC, to observe oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court. In Spring 2003, he led a group of graduate students taking British Public Address to London to observe Parliament in session. The UNT Student Government Association recognized Dr. Gossett’s commitment to classroom teaching in 1987 by presenting him the highest award that can be bestowed by the students, the ‘Fessor Graham Award for unselfish service and total dedication to the students of North Texas. Dr. Gossett is a faculty member in the University Honors College, and in 1998, he was the first recipient of the Joe G. Stewart Distinguished Service to Students Award, presented by the Student Government Association. Dr. Gossett served as a debate adviser to former Texas Governor Mark White and has coached Texas gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell. In addition, he served as an analyst for political candidate speaking and debating for The Dallas Morning News, KXAS-TV (Channel 5) in Fort Worth, KDFW-TV (Channel 4) in Dallas. In his research program, Dr. Gossett studies the First Amendment and investigates how humans use symbolic speech to express arguments on public policy issues. He has published in and served on the editorial board for Free Speech Yearbook, the most respected national scholarly journal for First Amendment research in the communication discipline. A native Texan, Dr. Gossett did his bachelor’s and master’s degree work at the University of Houston and earned his doctorate in Communication Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California. He and his wife, Karen, have two sons, Taylor and John, Jr. and one grandson, Andrew.
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Dr. Gosset's vita
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