Coaching Staff
Alex McVey | Director
E-mail: jalexandermcvey@ksu.edu
Campus Office: 219 Nichols Hall
Education
PhD - Communication Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 2018
MA - Communication, Baylor University, 2012
BA - Spanish, International Studies, Baylor University, 2012
Alex McVey is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Director of Debate at Kansas State University. Alex is a critical-cultural communication scholar whose research and pedagogy uses a variety of methods from rhetoric and media studies to examine how communication both contributes to and challenges social inequality. His current research project, Policing the Post-Racial, traces how the rhetorical dynamics of visual, surveillant, and digital media are impacting contemporary public conversations about racism in the criminal justice system. Looking at visual media texts such as memes, body-mounted police camera videos, and photoshopped Black Lives Matter protest signs, Policing the Post-Racial traces the contested communicative landscape of race and policing in the United States. His research has been published in outlets such as Rhetoric Review, Teaching Media Quarterly, Present Tense, and Project on the Rhetoric of Inquiry. Alex is also a dedicated teacher and debate coach with over a decade of experience coaching debate and forensics at the college, high school, and junior high levels. In 2022, Alex was awarded the Kansas Speech Communication Association's Collegiate Educator of the Year Award.
William James (JT) Taylor | Assistant Director
E-mail: wjtaylor@ksu.edu
Campus Office: 219 Nichols Hall
Education
M.A., Communication Studies, Kansas State University (2013)
Concentrations: Rhetoric, Qualitative Research
Thesis: Visions of Space Exploration and Development: Perspectives from the “Private” Sector
B.A, Integrated Studies, Emporia State University (2011)
Concentrations: Rhetoric, Media Studies, Critical Theory
Teaching
Small Group Discussion Methods
Public Speaking
Research
Taylor's areas of research include rhetorical criticism, food/culinary practices and culture, TV/film studies, argumentation and advocacy, and space exploration.
Hannah Phelps | Graduate Coaching Assistant
E-mail: hmphelps@ksu.edu
Campus Office: Nichols 219
Hannah debated for Weber State University for 4 years, qualifying to the NDT 3 times and making double-octafinals of CEDA twice. Their main research interests include argumentation and advocacy, gendered communication, cultural communication differences. Outside of research and debate she enjoys sci-fi and fantasy media, cooking and baking shows, and crochet. Their passion for debate stems from a belief in the power debate can have in generating social change and empowering its students.
Trevor Turner | Graduate Coaching Assistant
E-mail: trevorturner2001@ksu.edu
Campus Office: 219 Nichols Hall
Trevor Turner is a current graduate student in K-State’s Communication Studies program and a Graduate Assistant Coach for the Kansas State Debate Team. As a graduate of K-State’s Master of Architecture program, Trevor is looking to further develop his research interests that lie in the intersection of Black studies, visual analysis, and design theory. As a member of the K-State Debate Team, Trevor was a three-time NDT qualifier and CEDA octafinalist. He has served as lab leader at previous K-State Debate camps at the Manhattan and Olathe campuses, coaching middle and high school students at a variety of experience levels to reach competitive success.
