The newest issue of Contemporary Argumentation and Debate has just been published online and via open access. If you are interested in debating at all, you should read it. The editors have done an amazing job with this issue – and for international readers it will give you a sense of where the attention of…

Read More

echo chamber of the Dresden University of Technology (Photo credit: Wikipedia) THB it is unacceptable for CA teams to set motions at debate tournaments if there is a high probability they would be making competitors debate about topics that they have had traumatic personal experiences with. This motion was the final round at the Pan-Pacific…

Read More

I have recently started collecting these strange books I found by accident called University Debaters Annual. One was published for each academic year from sometime around 1900 until well past 1950. The books feature briefs on a motion, followed by the transcript of a debate on that motion between two universities. Many are available for…

Read More

trophies (Photo credit: Shockingly Tasty) Debate programs have been, for almost as long as they have existed, been competition-oriented. Before there were tournaments, the triangular leagues ensured that debate was gameified – that is, the actions taken by a debate program were within the frame of the dative: “we are doing this for the upcoming…

Read More

The Rhetoricians, circa 1655, by Jan Steen (1625-1679), in the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. The museum permits photography and does not restrict usage of the photographs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Having a mental or emotional problem? Go see the psychologist. Feeling sick? Go see the physician. Toothache? The dentist will see you for that.…

Read More

In the Zen tradition, the length of a life is always one breath. This emphasizes the Zen outlook that the present moment is the only one we can attend to, the only one we can be sure about. Paraphrasing Bruce Lee, the past is an illusion, the future is imaginary.  All we have is what…

Read More

My advice to those hosting or bidding to host the WUDC in the future is to try their hardest not to be Worlds. The world championship, before this most recent competition, had no hosts come forward to bid. Chennai was accepted without the usual time frame given to the planning of this tournament. Instead of…

Read More

Of course I would forget to mention in the last post one of the best experiences I had this past year – working with the great authors in this book I helped edit on judging BP debate. The book is available on Amazon, and pretty much anywhere where you would like to buy books. Working…

Read More

Research Bar (Photo credit: Rice-Aron Library) Gearing up for a new semester here in frozen New York City. Just got back to town after an extended trip to Houston to hang out with my family and my new nephew. Don’t worry, we haven’t started working on prepping motions yet. That starts next year . .…

Read More

Good theater should not look like theater. It shouldn’t feel like it either. It shouldn’t feel like anything, well, anything out of the ordinary. It should feel like you are watching people interact, react, and act. But not acting. That shouldn’t be apparent. Good acting should look like humans doing human stuff. Unless it’s a…

Read More