Tag: academic debate

  • Eastern Communication Association Conference in Boston

    Minecraft Castle (Photo credit: Mike_Cooke) Rhode Island is my staging area for my first trip to the Eastern Communication Association conference. I’m giving a paper tomorrow on Minecraft and the ancient practice of Declamation at around 18:30 GMT in Cambridge, close to Harvard University, but not really hosted there or in any association with them…

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  • Academic Debate? Let’s hope not.

    A student said to me, “I really wish you could write me a recommendation letter, but you haven’t ever been my professor.” This student has been studying debate with me for several years, so I pushed on this to get the response: “It’s not academic, so it doesn’t count.” Debate not academic? How could this be? We’d…

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  • St. John’s University New York vs. The Irish Times Champions in Public Debate

    Here is a video of the public debate that St. John’s Debate had against the Irish Times Champions. It lasts a little over an hour, and is a pretty good quality debate if I do say so myself. The motion is: This House believes that development aid should be tied to women’s rights. St. John’s…

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  • Merging West with East

    For the past couple of weeks I have been spending a lot of time thinking and reading about debate and argumentation – the western, rhetorical tradition, as well as the teaching methods and history of the conventions of Buddhism. I am starting work on a long-term project that attempts to separate the practice of debate…

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  • Responding to General Criticisms of Debate

    I find it very strange that there are still critiques that are alive and well of the practice of the art of debate. You would think that in an era of tea parties, conservative talk (shout?) radio, and a collection of some of the most incapable public officials in the art of justification, explanation and…

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  • Closed Adjudication and the Ballance of Learning

    Things are ramping up toward the white party tonight and the grand final round of WUDC 2010. Great tournament and great people. Been thinking a bit about the final closed rounds. Closed adjudication is something we rarely, if ever do in the Northeast BP region of the United States. I have usually been against it,…

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  • Argumentation Books I Can’t Do Without

    Chatting with a friend of mine online the other day and he asked me for my favorite argumentation\debate books. Thought I would list them here as well. Here’s the list I came up with: The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation by Perelman and Olbrects-Tyteca A masterwork, read it only 2 times all the way…

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  • Mandatory Debate Training?

    Here is an article by Susan Herbst advocating for mandatory debate training as a return to the principles of the civic in the U.S. Of course, this article oversimplifies. But the conection between participation in debate and the practice of civility seem questionable. For the general public, I think the connection is axiomatic. Of course…

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  • Final Round Video of East-West Tournament, Tokyo

    Click To Play Here is the final round from the East-West tournament in early June. We were invited to judge, but had some difficulty with the format. Here are some things to keep in mind as you watch the clip. 1. The clip begins with the entry of the 11 judge final round panel. Everyone…

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  • 2009 U.S. Japan Debate Exchange versus Sophia University

    Click To Play The processing of videos is slower than I thought it would be, sorry for the slowness. This is a good debate to start with though. The last debate on the final day of the tour versus Sophia University was a huge suprise. First, it was in an intimate, private setting with only…

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