Dr. Doug Coulson

Biography

Doug Coulson is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon University, focusing on research that explores how legal language shapes justice, identity, and power. His research interests encompass argumentation, advocacy, law and the humanities, rhetorical relationships with violence, as well as democratic deliberation and demagoguery. He is particularly concerned with how historical rhetorical conditions influence language, which includes examining the ways it persuades or silences. Currently, he is working on a book that explores the demagoguery in judicial writing. Notable publications include 'Judicial Rhapsodies: Rhetoric of Fundamental Rights in the Supreme Court' (Amherst, 2023), which analyzes the operatic forms of writing utilized by Supreme Court justices to justify fundamental rights decisions, and 'Race, Nation, Refuge: Rhetoric of Race in Asian American Citizenship Cases' (SUNY Press, 2017), which discusses how the early U.S. naturalization process used racialized notions of kinship to shape citizenship law. Doug's essays have been published in several respected journals, including Rhetorica and the Yale Journal of Law and Humanities. He holds a Juris Doctor from Tulane Law School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also an author of legal practice guides and remains licensed to practice law in Texas.

Research Interests