Jean Wagemans is Professor of Cognition, Communication, and Argumentation at the University of Amsterdam. He serves as the chair of the Department of Speech Communication, Argumentation Theory, and Rhetoric, and coordinates the interdisciplinary research group Language and Cognition in Argumentation (LANCAR). 

Wagemans specializes in Rhetoric and the Philosophy of Argument. He is the originator of the Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA), an innovative taxonomy of persuasive techniques with applications in argument-checking, formal linguistics, and explainable AI. Wagemans authored the chapter on The Philosophy of Argument (2022) in the Cambridge Handbook for the Philosophy of Language and co-authored the Handbook of Argumentation Theory (2014) and Argumentation and debate (in Dutch, 2014). He publishes scientific articles, web content, and popularizing columns, and regularly appears in the media to talk about his research and to provide expert commentary on current affairs. 

At the University of Amsterdam, Wagemans teaches courses and supervises theses at the BA, BSc, (r)MA, and PhD level. He is a member of the editorial boards of TOPOI, Argumentation, and Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing, and serves as a reviewer for Synthese, Informal Logic, Argument & Computation, and other scientific journals. Wagemans co-directed the ISSA 9th International Conference on Argumentation and as a member of the scientific committees of ECA 2025, ARGAGE 2024, and other conferences in the field. 

For more information and downloading of publications, please visit his pages on UvA | ORCID | Academia | Bluesky | LinkedIn. 

Jean Wagemans is coordinator of the research group LANCAR (Language and Cognition in Argumentation) at the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC) of the University of Amsterdam. The group is investigating how argumentation and persuasion operate across cognition, language, and communication. Their work is structured into six interlinked research lines:

Cognitive Neuroscience of Persuasion uses neuroimaging (MRI, EEG), reading/eye-tracking, and behavioural methods to examine how persuasive messages are processed in the brain and how individual differences shape their effectiveness.

Annotating Argumentation in the Wild builds annotated corpora of persuasive discourse (e.g., online forums), labels argument types, and analyses linguistic markers of real-world argumentation.

Argument‑Checking develops procedures and educational tools extending fact-checking into “argument-checking”, aimed at improving rhetorical literacy and supporting evaluation of argumentative texts and discussions.

Adpositional Rhetoric (AdRhet) develops a formal model to represent linguistic-pragmatic features of persuasive discourse, combining Constructive Adpositional Grammars (CxAdGrams) with the Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA).

Multimodal Rhetoric explores how combinations of language, image, and sound persuade in contexts such as advertising, digital art, and campaigns, and develops methods to analyse multimodal argumentation.

Philosophy of Argument investigates foundational concepts of argumentation theory (argument type, fallacy, stock issue) and extends them to metaphor, narration, visual argumentation, and polylogue.

Together, these lines span empirical, practical, and theoretical domains and aim both to advance academic understanding of persuasion and argumentation and to develop tools and technologies that support critical thinking and rhetorical literacy in digital society.

Inaugural lecture "Rhetoric and cognition in the information age"

March 1, 2023

Recent technological developments have led to a change in the way we communicate and argue with each other. In his inaugural lecture, Wagemans discusses how these changes in our communicative and cognitive environment can be mapped using innovative research methods. Wagemans illustrates the applicability of insights from classical rhetoric for combating misinformation. He also pays attention to research into the way in which people try to convince each other on online discussion platforms, rhetorical patterns in the brain, and the argumentative qualities of persuasive texts generated using LLMs such as ChatGPT.

The recordings of this inaugural lecture can be viewed here.

Honours module on argument-checking

December 20, 2021

Based on their research into argument-checking, Jean Wagemans and Federica Russo have developed the honours module “From Fact-Checking to Argument-Checking”. The course is taught yearly to 50 students from the University of Amsterdam and VU Amsterdam as part of the honours program offered by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies. Read more about this course in Highlighted: From Fact-Checking to Argument-Checking.