2023-2024 Fellow · 2025-2026 Senior Fellow
Michael Bruner
Professor of Communication Studies University of Nevada Las Vegas
About Michael Bruner
Michael Lane Bruner (a.k.a. M. Lane Bruner) is Professor of Communication Studies and Affiliate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a well-established reputation for research in freedom of speech and civic engagement. Bruner’s work in these areas, spanning more than two decades, focuses primarily on legal rulings and legislation that appear on the surface to protect and expand free speech and citizen engagement when in fact they undermine the very public reason upon which sound legal and policy decisions are based. Bruner also ensures that his work on responsible public speech and civic engagement is applied. To that end, he teaches policy development and communication to policy professionals at the doctoral level and collaborative debate at the undergraduate level.
Over the last decade, Balter-Reitz and Bruner have been concerned with the attacks on public colleges and universities under the guise of protecting free expression. Examples include their 2011-2012 work, on the Westboro Baptist Church’s influence on Supreme Court rulings related to free speech and public spectacle, their 2016-2017 research on the cynical manipulation of university free speech rules by provocateurs such as Milo Yiannopoulous, and their most recent work on the passage of FORUM Acts in the United States presented at the National Communication Association Conference in 2022.
Projects
Strategic Advocacy for Higher Education in Public and Legislative Settings
For decades, higher education leaders have repeatedly found themselves called upon to respond to accusations against their institutions, and their rhetorical responses have been ineffective. Our project develops much-needed training in advocacy for those faced with defending higher education in public and legislative settings against ideologically charged attacks, whether from the right or the left.
Read the full project: Strategic Advocacy for Higher Education in Public and Legislative Settings- Academic Freedom
- Diversity, Inclusion, and Expression
- Free Speech/First Amendment
- State Legislation & Legal/Policy Threats
The Performance of Argument in University Free Speech Legislation: Lessons for University Leadership in Public Communication
In 2017, the FORUM Act emerged as model legislation regarding free speech policies at state funded U.S. universities. Twenty-five states have now passed such bills or portions thereof. Our project provides a close reading of the arguments made for and against the bill in five representative states, uncovering a range of legislative environments in which those arguments took place. Our findings indicate that institutions of higher education must develop more nuanced rhetorical strategies to defend their value.
Read the full project: The Performance of Argument in University Free Speech Legislation: Lessons for University Leadership in Public Communication