Ryan Galloway , Assistant Professor
Ph. D., Speech Communication, University of Georgia 2004
M.A., Communication Studies, Baylor University 1997
B.A., Political Science, George Mason University 1994
My wife Becky taught middle school at Oak Mountain High School until we had our first child, Alex, in November 2006. She is currently a stay at home mother who loves reading, walking, and beating me at Scrabble. My son Alex enjoys his excer-saucer, strained peas, and spitting up on his parents when we are trying to go somewhere in a hurry.
My hobbies are board games, video games, basketball, and golf. I'm a terrible golfer, but an excellent Ms. Pac-Man player. On my first date with Becky, I played Ms. Pac-Man for 45 minutes on one quarter while totally ignoring my wife as we waited for our movie (As Good As it Gets) to start. Why she stayed with me, I have no idea...
My research interests include political communication, argumentation, and my dissertation was on John McCain. Hopefully he can get it together in the primaries to make my predictions about how his narratives about his military life being an important contributor to his campaign success can come true.
I chose Samford because of its excellent academic reputation and its long tradition of debate history. The communication studies department is warm, friendly, helpful, and full of excellent academics. In addition, my wife's family lives in Birmingham, so the job was a perfect fit for us as we began to start our family. Already Baby Alex loves being around his family, especially his seven-year old and four-year old nieces.
Dr. Galloway's Honors/Awards/Professional Activities:
- As a debater, qualified for the National Debate Tournament three times
- Recipient of numerous top ten speaker awards at major national circuit tournaments
- Coached teams to the late elimination rounds of every major national tournament in the country, including numerous teams to the deep elimination rounds of the National Debate Tournament
- In 2005, Dr. Galloway coached the National Debater of the Year
- Named the fifth highest ranked judge in the country at the 2004 Wake Forest Debate Tournament, and was named the fifth best judge in the country in the 2006 Debater's Choice Awards
- Critic of the year for the Southeast CEDA region, the critic of the year for the North Central region, and was named the graduate student of the year for District Six in 2002
- Author of the topic paper for the winning 2006-2007 college debate resolution, focusing on whether or not certain landmark Supreme Court decisions should be overruled, the first legal topic debated in intercollegiate college debate in 15 years.
- Currently a member of the national topic committee, and the district six representative to the National Debate Tournament
For more information on Samford debate, please visit the debate website.
