2 PhD positions in Argumentation Theory, Lisbon, Portugal‏

This is to let you know that 2 positions are now open for a 4-year PhD programme at the ArgLab, Institute of Philosophy of Language, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, in the domain of political and legal argumentation. The programme is meant to include international cooperation, first of all within the ArguPolis framework developed by the University of Lugano and their partners.

Funding is secured through a grant received by the Institute from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and should not be affected by the current financial volatility in Portugal.

Deadline for applications: May 31st, 2011.

Start of the programme: September 1st, 2011.

Details can be found here:
http://www.arglab.ifl.pt/arglab-events/2011/4/12/2-phd-positions-4-years-open-at-arglab.html

and here:

http://www.fcsh.unl.pt/investigacao/bolsas/programa-de-doutoramento-internacional-argumentation-and-communication-instituto-de-filosofia-da-linguagem-ifl/view

Please forward this message to whomever may be interested.

Thank you!
With regards,

Marcin Lewinski, PhD
Post-doctoral researcher
ArgLab
Institue of Philosophy of Language (IFL)
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Edifício I&D - 4 andar
Avenida de Berna 26
1069-061 Lisbon
Portugal

Congrats to Anat and Michael

Congrats to Anat Gelber (DCA at Worlds last year) and Michael Shapira (current Worlds ESL Champion) on their marraige.  Many people will know them from Worlds, Euros and several other tournaments in recent years.

Mazel tov! May they have many many happy years together.

1st China National High Schools' English Debating Championship 2011

Dear Friends of Debate, I am happy to announce that we will be holding the 1st China National High Schools' English Debating Championship 2011 this summer in the city of Nanjing, China.

We would like to invite your high schools and/or your former high schools to send debate teams to compete in this inaugural, ground-breaking event in China.




Please help us to spread the word on this event by forwarding it to teachers, debate trainers and students you know who may be interested to consider coming to join our debate party.

Below is a summary of the event at a glance:
1. Dates: 23th to 29th July (Arrival on 23rd and Departure on 29th July)

2. Location: Jinling High School, Nanjing, China

3. Debate Format : 3-on-3 World Schools' Style
(World Schools' Debating Championship or WSDC Debate Format)

4. Tournament Capacity: 50 Teams

5. Schedule: Please see Schedule document attached.

6. Tournament Structure
a) Main Competition -- For Mainland Chinese High School Teams
b) International Finals Series -- For High School Teams from Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, International Schools in China, and the rest of the world
c) 8 Preliminary Rounds of Debates, Quarter to Grand Final
d) High Schools do not need bring along judges as we will be inviting top local/overseas judges to provide quality adjudication

7. Registration Fee -- 800Chinese Yuan/RMB per debater/teacher/judge (excludes hotel accommodation)

8. Registration Deadline: 21st May 2011

9. Registration Method : Submission of Registration Form A (attached) by 21st May 2011 to both these email addresses:
1. chinahighschooldebate2011@hotmail.com
2. George Chen at: georgecc1991@hotmail.com

10. Social Events
a) Opening Ceremony/Welcome Dinner
b) Break Night Dinner & Party
c) Grand Final/Closing Ceremony/Awards Presentation/Championship Dinner

11. Tournament Website
A Tournament Website will be ready by 23rd April. It will contain the same information I have given in the attached documents, and will be updated regularly.

Thanking you and hoping to hear from you, on behalf of the Organising Committee.

For more information or clarification, please write to me.

cheers,

loke wing fatt
Overall-in-charge/Chief Adjudicator
1st China National High Schools' English Debating Championship 2011
Society for Associated Inter-Tertiary Debaters (SAID)
Singapore
Website: saidsg.wordpress.com

Ten lessons from USU 2011‏

Fresh from being CA of the US Universities Debating Championships Stephen Boyle, the CA, has posted a list of ten lessons from the tournament.  It's common practice after major international tournaments for the CA to prepare a report for the organising council on how things went. However this report rarely gets published to the wider community (not for any secret reason just that it comes out a year later at council and gets lost in all the other information coming out about the current tournament). 

Even though USU has no governing council Stephen still thought it might be useful for people hosting the competition over the next few years, and indeed for anyone organising a competition at all, if he shared some of the lessons that they learned.

For anyone interested, the 10 lessons can be found here.

Venezuela Wins North American WUDC Spanish Language Championship

Campeones: Venezuela (Roddy Rodriguez & Daniel Valensi) (2O)

Segundo Lugar: Chile (Constanza Diaz Dabanch & Nicole Hansen) (1O)

Finalistas: Cornell (Lorena Michelen & Ana Cristina Zapata) (1G), Venezuela (Monica Tismineski & Jesus Gorrin) (2G)

1.) Colombia (Ana Diez & Carlos Parra)
2.) Venezuela (Monica Tismineski & Jesus Gorrin)
3.) Chile (Constanza Diaz Dabanch & Nicole Hansen)
4.) Venezuela (Roddy Rodriguez & Daniel Valensi)
5.) Cornell (Tito Reynaldo & Saul Blanco)
6.) Cornell (Abdiel Ortiz & Rodrigo Otarola)
7.) Vermont (Jim Usborn & Harrison Bigler)
8.) Cornell (Lorena Michelen & Ana Cristina Zapata)
9.) Cornell (Ana Cristina Arroyo & Kristina Francillion)
10.) Cornell (Eric Castillo & Jouquin Ponce)
11.) Cornell (Faheem Fazeli & David Jose Pagan)
12.) Vermont (Siobhan Neela-Stock & James Dee)

Final: Esta casa terminaría la guerra contra las drogas.
Semifinales: Esta casa cree que los países Latino Americanos deberían priorizar la seguridad medio ambiental sobre la seguridad económica.
6ta ronda: Esta casa cree que el modelo Costa Costarricense de desmilitarización es la mejor política para países Latino Americanos.
5ta ronda: Esta casa cree que los países emergentes son gobernados de mejor manera por lideres femeninas.
4ta ronda: Esta casa cree que tratados de libre comercio han hecho más daño que bien.
3ra ronda: Esta casa haría que la iglesia católica redistribuya sus terrenos a los pobres.
2da ronda: Esta casa cree que los grandes eventos deportivos internacionales deberían ser organizados en países democráticos
1ra ronda: Esta casa devolvería artefactos culturales de valor histórica a sus países de origen.

Mejor orador
1. 467 –Carlos Parra (Colombia)
2. 464 – Nicole Hansen (Chile)
3. 464 – Jesus Gorrin (Venezuela)
4. 463 – Ana Maria Diez (Colombia)
5. 460 – Constanza Diaz Dabanch (Chile)
6. 458 – Tito Reynaldo (Cornell)
7. 457 – Monica Tismineski (Venezuela)
8. 456 – Roddy Rodriguez (Venezuela)
9. 453 – Kristina Francillion (Cornell)
10. 453 – Faheem Fazili (Cornell)
11. 453 – Saul Blanco (Cornell)

Stanford wins HWS / IDEA Round Robin

5th annual HWS / IDEA Round Robin champion:

Stanford University (Alex Campbell & Anish Mitra)

Second place: Oxford University (Bell & Woolgar)

Finalists: Hart House (Goswami & Penner) & MIT (Goldstein & McKee)

* The team from the University of the Witwatersrand missed making the finals on a tie-breaker and so deserves special mention.

Best speaker: Ben Woolgar (Oxford)

Second speaker: Stephanie Bell (Oxford)

Third speaker: Alex Campbell (Stanford)

Fourth speaker: Joe Roussos (Witwatersrand)

Fifth speaker: Anish Mitra (Stanford)

Sixth speaker: Adam Goldstein (MIT)

Seventh speaker: David Maher (New South Wales)

Eigth speaker: Veenu Goswami (Hart House)

Ninth speaker: Angela Kintominas (New South Wales)

Tenth speaker: Steve Penner (Hart House)

Stephen Boyle from Ireland (now coaching at UVM) won the Honored Adjudicator award.

Motions for 2011:

1) This house would eliminate tenure for university professors.

2) This house believes that S&M contracts are unconscionable.

3) This house would give preference to immigration applicants whose values are consistent with those of the host nation.

4) This house supports parents who secretly install spyware on their children’s electronic devices.

5) This house would not use public money on life-extending medical care for people over a certain age.

Finals: This house believes that whenever individuals have a choice between spending their money on luxuries or donating it to ameliorating suffering, morality demands donating.

Change of coach at LaVerne

It is with great regret that I have to announce that Josh Martin will no longer be serving as the University of La Verne Debate Coach. Since my retirement from debating tournaments, Josh stepped up to lead our debate program with tremendous personal sacrifice. With I would like to thank him for his expertise and loyalty, which I, the team, and our community have deeply benefited from. We look forward to Josh's future contributions to the international debating community and fully support him in his future endeavors.

Josh will still be directing our previously announced Summer Training Program and will always be considered as one of our own.

Josh's old debating partner Rob Ruiz (with whom he won the 2007 USU National Championship) volunteered to serve as our Director of Forensics and John Patrick (with whom Josh won the 2006 USU National Open) will serve as Debate Coach. Both Rob and John, currently adjunct instructors with our department, have graciously offered their time and service to lead our debating program. All future communication with the University of La Verne Debate Team should be directed to: rruiz@laverne.edu  and/or jpatrick2@laverne.edu

Thank you so much for your kind attention and best wishes to all.

Professor Ian T. Lising
Chair
Speech Communication Department
University of La Verne