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Daniel Overton Faculty Profile

Daniel Overton

Associate Professor of Communication
Communication Division, Seaver College
CCB 253
310.506.7537

Biography

After graduating from Freed-Hardeman University, Daniel worked as a full-time congregational minister for a church plant near Memphis, TN for six years, and he earned a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Historical Theology from the Harding School of Theology during that time. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric at the University of Kansas. Prior to joining the Seaver College faculty at Pepperdine in 2018, he served as assistant professor for his alma mater Freed-Hardeman in his home state of Tennessee. He more recently served as the faculty-in-residence in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the 2023-24 academic year. Currently, he teaches courses focusing on ethics, rhetoric, leadership, and public speaking. Daniel's research interests concern moral reasoning, the history of rhetoric, constitutive and prophetic rhetorics, and religious rhetoric in various contexts. He is married to Elaine, and together they have three mostly delightful daughters.

Education

  • PhD, Communication Studies: Rhetoric, University of Kansas
  • MA, Historical Theology, Harding School of Theology
  • MDiv, Harding School of Theology
  • BA, Freed-Hardeman University

 

  • Overton, Daniel P. “Forging Peace by Threatening Violence: Rhetorical Violence for Nonviolent Social Change in Eugene Debs’s ‘Arouse, Ye Slaves!’” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 28, no. 1 (2025).
  • Overton, Daniel. "The Greatest Hero of the Great War: Alvin C. York as a Rhetorical Creation," in Reframing Rhetorical History, Edited by Kathleen Turner and Jason Black (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama, 2022).

  • Overton, Daniel. "Locating Utopia in Populism: Considering Progressive Populism, Utopian Rhetoric, and the Populist Argumentative Frame," in Local Theories of Argument, Edited by Dale Hample (New York: Routledge, 2021).

  • Overton, Daniel. "A Kingdom Not of This World: John T. Lewis's Defense of Christian Nonviolence during the Second World War," Restoration Quarterly 61, no. 1 (2021).

  • Overton, Daniel. "Singing through Clenched Teeth: Psalm 137 and the Imprecatory Psalms as Traumatic Liturgy," Journal of Communication and Religion 43, no. 2 (2020).

  • Overton, Daniel. "The Consequences of Liberty: Barton W. Stone's Democratized Rhetoric and Hermeneutics," Rhetorica 38, no. 3 (2020).

  • Overton, Daniel. "Explosion of Meaning: The Complexity of Context and Language." In Communication in the Classroom: A Collection of Great Ideas for Teaching Students. Edited by John S. Seiter, Jennifer Peeples, and Matthew L. Sanders, 199-202. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2018.
  • Overton, Daniel. "How to Build an Army: The Constitutive Utopian Rhetoric of Julius Wayland in the Appeal to Reason." PhD Diss., University of Kansas, 2017.
  • RISE Resilience Teaching Fellowship, 2021
  • Editorial Board, Western Journal of Communication, 2018-2022
  • Robert N. Bostrom Young Scholar Award, Southern States Communication Association, 2016
  • E.C. Buehler Award and Fellowship for Outstanding Teaching, University of Kansas, 2015
  • Academic Awards for ranking first in class during M.Div. and M.A. programs, Harding School of Theology, 2014
  • Overton, Daniel, “The ‘One Hoss’ Editor: The Constitutive Self-Presentation of Julius Wayland in the Appeal to Reason,” paper presented at the International Society for the History of Rhetoric Biennial Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 2025.
  • Overton, Daniel, “Dragging the Kitchen Table to New York City: Martin Luther King’s Prophetic Call Narrative as Commonplace,” paper presented at the International Society for the History of Rhetoric Biennial Conference, Nijmegen, Netherlands, July 2022.
  • Overton, Daniel, “Approaches to Nationalism and Transnationalism,” paper presented at the Southern States Communication Association, Greenville, SC, April 2022.
  • Overton, Daniel, “The Peaceable Eugene Debs and Violent Revolt: On the Use of Threats as a Potential Means to Nonviolence,” paper presented at the National Communication Association Convention, Indianapolis, IN, November 2020.
  • Overton, Daniel, “Singing through Clenched Teeth: Psalm 137 and the Imprecatory Psalms as Traumatic Liturgy,” paper presented at the National Communication Association Convention, Baltimore, MD, November 2019.
  • Overton, Daniel, “Locating Utopia in Populism: Considering Progressive Populism, Utopian Rhetoric, and the Populist Argumentative Frame,” paper presented at the Biennial National Communication Association/American Forensic Association Conference on Argumentation, Alta, UT, August 2019.
  • Overton, Daniel, “Making Peace by Threatening Violence: Rhetorical Violence for Nonviolent Social Change in Eugene Debs’s Arouse, Ye Slaves!,” paper presented at the International Society for the History of Rhetoric Biennial Conference, New Orleans, LA, July 2019.
  • Overton, Daniel. "Pacifism after Pearl Harbor: Foy E. Wallace Jr. Changes His Mind," paper presented at the Christian Scholars Conference, Nashville, TN, June 2018.
  • Overton, Daniel. "What Has Montgomery to Do with Vietnam?: The Prophetic Call Form as a Rhetorical Resource in King's 'Beyond Vietnam' Address," paper presented at the Southern States Communication Association Conference, Nashville, TN, April 2018. (Awarded Top Paper History of Rhetoric Division)
  • Overton, Daniel. "Alvin York as a Rhetorically Muted Figure," paper presented at Remembering Muted Voices Symposium, National World War One Museum and Memorial, Kansas City, MO, October 2017.
  • Overton, Daniel. "How to Build an Army: The Constitution of Julius Wayland's Militant Counterpublic," paper presented at Biennial Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Atlanta, GA, May 2016.

Topics

  • Moral Reasoning
  • Rhetoric
  • Hermeneutics
  • Religion
  • Leadership
  • Public Speaking