Doug Coulson
Associate Professor of English Carnegie Mellon University
- Pittsburgh PA
250th Anniversary, Pre-Modern Studies, Professional Writing, Rhetoric, How legal language shapes justice, identity, and power
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Book Author
I’m currently working on a book that explores demagoguery in judicial writing. In my most recently published book, Judicial Rhapsodies: Rhetoric and Fundamental Rights in the Supreme Court (Amherst, 2023), I examine the laudatory, even operatic, forms of writing Supreme Court justices have used to justify fundamental rights decisions, arguing that such writing is not an aberration but a central feature of judicial discourse.
Education
Oklahoma City University
B.A.
Oklahoma City University
M.A.
The University of Texas at Austin
M.A.
Tulane Law School
J.D.
Law
The University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D
Before pursuing my Ph.D., I received my J.D. from Tulane Law School and practiced as a litigator in a large national law firm. I remain a licensed attorney in Texas and author the multi-volume West’s Texas Practice Guide: Business and Commercial Litigation and updates to the multi-volume Texas Business Litigation: Forms and Commentary.
Articles
Race, Nation, and Refuge: The Rhetoric of Race in Asian American Citizenship Cases
SUNY Press,Doug Coulson
My first book, Race, Nation, and Refuge: The Rhetoric of Race in Asian American Citizenship Cases (SUNY Press, 2017), traces how the early United States naturalization system used racialized notions of threat and kinship to shape citizenship law. My essays have appeared in Rhetorica, Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Legal Communication & Rhetoric, The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives, and University of Miami Race and Social Justice Law Review.
