Wrap-Up: FSU Libraries Hosts Professors Emeriti to Speak on Russian Political Rhetoric

On March 4, 2025, FSU Emeriti faculty, Dr. Marilyn Young and Dr. Michael Launer visited Strozier’s Bradley Reading Room to give a lecture on their latest book, The Rhetorical Rise and Demise of “Democracy” in Russian Political Discourse, volume 4, co-authored with Dr. David Cratis Williams from Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Young, though retired as Wayne C. Minnick Professor of Communications since 2005, has remained an active academic force. Much the same can be said about Dr. Launer, Emeritus Professor of Russian. Both have been highly influential in their respective fields and continue to have influence through their marvelous set of books detailing Russian political rhetoric since the late 1990s.

The latest installment, volume 4, details Russian president Vladimir Putin’s anti-Ukrainian and anti-democratic rhetoric from 2012 to 2022, the year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This book provides a historical and rhetorical context from which we can understand the Russian government’s thinking about governance and its western neighbors. This book will be immensely valuable to scholars of communications, Russian history, and politics.

Dr. Young taught at FSU for 33 years, serving as debate coach and director of forensics from 1972 to 1985. She continues to act as a public intellectual, conducting her rhetorical research and raising money to perpetuate the future of the debate team. In 2014, she established the “Marilyn J. Young Debate Endowment Fund” for said team. Dr. Launer was a certified technical interpreter for United States Government funded nuclear safety programs and seminars for 25 years. In 1987, he interpreted for the first group of Soviet scientists visiting the U.S. following the Chernobyl accident. It was a privilege to be able to attend an event headed by these two respected experts of the FSU community.