Author Archive: drstein

Dr. Kevin A. Stein is a Professor of Communication at Southern Utah University. He is a native Californian, but his education has taken him to Utah, Idaho, and then Missouri where he completed his doctoral work at the University of Missouri-Columbia under the direction of William L. Benoit. Stein’s research focuses primarily on the rhetoric of attack (kategoria), defense (apologia), and persuasive responses to defense (antapologia). Stein has published peer-reviewed journal articles addressing a variety of apologetic contexts including Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic tirade, Barack Obama’s “World Apology Tour,” Zinedine Zidane’s head butting incident at the World Cup, U.S. apologia following the 1960 Soviet U-2 incident, student excuses to their professors, and filmmakers’ apologies following terrible movies. Stein has also published books and academic articles on persuasive attack and different types of political campaign messages including debates, advertisements, acceptance addresses, direct mail brochures, and television talk show appearances. He has presented his academic work at regional, national, and international conferences, including presentations at the University of Athens in Greece, the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and UIC Barcelona. When he’s not working, Stein loves movies, traveling, true crime TV/books, ping pong, knitting, spending time with his wife, Stacie, and their five children, and trying to tame his Pembroke Welsh Corgi, “Clover.”