Christopher Jackson is an assistant professor and the Director of Speech and Debate at Marian University. The head coach of Marian’s nationally competitive intercollegiate speech and policy debate program, Professor Jackson is a quantitative social scientist who uses experimental methods to figure out what arguments change minds. He primarily studies persuasion in the context of climate change.
Jackson’s research focuses on testing the effectiveness of pro-climate economic arguments. As environmental problems worsen, many activists and politicians have sought to link climate and economic issues in order to break through to audiences. Whether such “green greed” appeals work remains an open question in communication studies and psychology. His experiments test different types of economic messages to see which work well, especially for climate skeptics.
As Director of Marian’s speech and debate team, Jackson is responsible for all aspects of team administration, including budget control, guidance of assistant coaches, student recruitment and retention, maintenance of a fun and safe team culture, argument production, among others. Presently, he serves as the Treasurer of the Indiana Forensics Association.
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Recent Publications:
"Climate communication now needs moonshot arguments: a call for testing stronger, riskier persuasive messaging strategies" presented to the International Environmental Communication Association’s Conference on Communication and Environment, 2025
"Should climate change communication go left, center, or right? Evaluating strategic options under time constraints" presented to the International Environmental Communication Association’s Conference on Communication and Environment, 2025
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Outside of work, Christopher is a competitive foil fencer.
