Pitt Professor Named Deputy Director of the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies At the University of Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH-Gordon Mitchell, associate professor of communication in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, has been appointed deputy director of the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies in Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA).

"Professor Mitchell is not only an extremely astute security analyst, but also an expert in unraveling the arcane discourse of security 'insiders' that often leads to lack of public scrutiny and serious mistakes in foreign policy," said William Keller, Ridgway Center director and Wesley W. Posvar Professor in GSPIA.

As a senior research associate with the Ridgway Center from 2003 to 2006, Mitchell chaired a working group on preemptive and preventive military intervention that produced "Hitting First: Preventive Force in U.S. Security Strategy," the premier volume in a new book series launched last year by the University of Pittsburgh Press, as well as 12 working papers and two policy briefs. Another work product from the group was Mitchell's "Quarterly Journal of Speech" article, "Team B Intelligence Coups," which was recently named outstanding article of the year by the National Communication Association's Political Communication Division.

Mitchell has been a Pitt faculty member since 1995. His numerous articles on security matters have appeared in such journals as "The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" and The "Fletcher Forum of World Affairs," while Mitchell's briefing papers and op-eds have been published by think tanks around the world and syndicated by such news organizations as McClatchy and Scripps Howard. His book, "Strategic Deception: Rhetoric, Science and Politics in Missile Defense Advocacy" (Michigan State University Press, 2000), received the James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address from the National Communication Association.

Mitchell, recipient of the Tina and David Bellet Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2000) and the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award (2001), will continue to teach in Pitt's Department of Communication and serve as director of the William Pitt Debating Union.

Pitt's Ridgway Center is dedicated to generating scholarship that educates the next generation of security analysts. Its purpose is to produce original and impartial analysis that informs policymakers who must confront diverse challenges to state and human security on a global scale.

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9/26/09/tmw