In the Summer 2018 issue of International Debate, Miriam Kohn (LearningLeaders, Rochester '17) and Chris Perkins (Rochester '17) published an article titled "Fair Play: Proposals for Reform to the Break System in British Parliamentary Debate." In said article, they discussed the possibility to replace team breaks on speaks with a point-based break and additional bye-based elimination round. AchteMinute (AM): First off, so lucky to be chatting with you, Miriam & Chris. Can you tell us briefly about your background in debate? Miriam Kohn (M): Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! My high school didn’t have a debate team, so ...

The use of language in university debating hasn't been studied a lot so far. Miriam Kohn from the University of Rochester did some research - in this interview, she tells us about her results and thoughts on the use of "hedging". Edited for length & clarity with entire thesis and speech transcriptions available here. ...

[caption id="attachment_31673" align="alignright" width="400"] Left to right: Samantha Malone (finalist), Tessa Holtzman (champion), Abigail Westberry (champion) and Katherine Ziegler (finalist) - (c) Jan Hovden[/caption] Bates sophomores Bates HW (Tessa Holtzman, Abigail Westberry) were recognized Champions of the 2017 North American Women & Gender Minorities Debating Championships (NAW*DC) on a tight 3-2 call for Closing Government, beating out fellow Bates MZ (Samantha Malone, Katherine Ziegler) across the closing bench as well as UADS JK (Moira Kelly, Emma Jones) of the University of Alberta in Opening Government and University of British Columbia & Hart House team Hybrid FB (Gozal Farrokh, Jayun Bae) in Opening Opposition. In the ...

Note by the editors: This article will be updated to reflect the top novice speaker & Spanish division motions when such information is released. [caption id="attachment_31574" align="alignright" width="400"] left: Pan-American Champions Miriam Kohn & Chris Perkins. right: ESL top speaker Syed Reefat Aziz - © Brady Fletcher.[/caption] In the English division of the 2017 Pan-American Universities Debating Championships, the team Rochester PK (Miriam Kohn, Chris Perkins) emerged victorious from Closing Government on the grand final motion “This house prefers a world where American and Canadian Multi-National Corporations in South America adhere to the environmental and labour standards of their home countries." They debated against ULV LM (Kandin ...