With deep sadness, the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric (CRRAR) mourns the death this week of Distinguished Research fellow, Dr. Douglas N. Walton. After a long career at the University of Winnipeg, Dr. Walton joined the University of Windsor as Assumption Chair in Argumentation in 2008. He was a prolific scholar, publishing over a hundred papers and several books in his time at Windsor alone. He led the field on more fronts than can be enumerated here, establishing the groundwork on which several generations of scholars have continued to build and setting the research agendas for generations of scholars to come. In spite of his international reputation, he is remembered as a man of deep humility, generous with his time and expertise and eager to mentor young minds. Those who knew him well can today count themselves fortunate and will continue to be inspired by the tremendous legacy he leaves behind.
Douglas Walton (Ph.D. University of Toronto, 1972) is the Distinguished Research Fellow of CRRAR (Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric) at the University of Windsor.
From 2008-2013 he held the Assumption Chair of Argumentation Studies at UWindsor. He has been Visiting Professor at Northwestern University, University of Arizona, and University of Lugano (Switzerland).
He is co-editor of the Critical Argumentation textbook series for Cambridge University Press. In 2011 he was Fernand Braudel Research Fellow of the European University Institute in Florence, where he collaborated on research in legal argumentation with Prof. Giovanni Sartor of the EUI and the Faculty of Law at the University of Bologna.
In 2010 he was appointed to the Editorial Board of the journal Artificial Intelligence and Law. In 2009 he was given the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Dean’s Special Recognition Award of the University of Windsor in recognition of excellence in research, scholarship and creative activity.
In the area of argumentation studies, he has published 50 books, as well as 350+ refereed papers, and has had 19,124 citations as of Sept. 14, 2017 (Google Scholar). He has given lectures and workshop contributions in many countries.