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BARD DEBATE TEAM HOSTS DEBATE TOURNAMENT ON JANUARY 28 AND 29, 2006, AT BARD COLLEGE Opening event on January 27 is a panel discussion between renowned authors and Bard professors Ian Buruma and Walter Russell Mead on the United S

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard Debate Team will host a college policy debate tournament on Saturday, January 28, and Sunday, January 29. Opening the program will be a panel discussion between Bard professors, Ian Buruma and Walter Russell Mead, moderated by Leon Botstein, on Friday, January 27. All the programs will be held in Olin Hall and are open to the public without charge. Ian Buruma, Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard, and Walter Russell Mead, visiting professor of political science at Bard, will discuss their views on the pros and cons of United States pressure on China (which is also the 2005–06 college policy debate topic) on Friday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m. Buruma is a specialist on Asia, about which he has written in his most recent book, Inventing Japan: 1853–1964 (2003), a “masterly short history of modern Japan,” according to Christopher Benfey in the New York Times. Buruma is also the author of Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing (2001), Anglomania: A European Love Affair (1999), The Missionary and the Libertine (1997), The Wages of Guilt (1995), Playing the Game (1990), God's Dust (1988), and Behind the Mask (1983). He is also a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, New York Times Magazine, New Republic, New Yorker, The Guardian, and other publications in the United States and Europe. Mead, the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of Power, Terror, Peace, and War; America’s Grand Strategy in a World at Ris;k and Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World, which received the Lionel Gelber Prize. He is a leading interpreter of the history of U.S. foreign policy and America’s role in the world; in addition, he is an expert in international political economy, domestic politics, and religion and foreign policy. The topic of this year’s college policy debate tournament is “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase diplomatic and economic pressure on the People's Republic of China in one or more of the following areas: trade, human rights, weapons nonproliferation, Taiwan.” Teams from Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia, NYU, the United States Military Academy at West Point, University of Rochester, University of Vermont, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Buffalo, Western Connecticut State University, West Virginia University, Fordham College, University of Richmond, University of Wyoming, Oklahoma University, and Kansas State University will be represented in the tournament that is held from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 28, and Sunday, January 29. On Saturday all teams participate in five preliminary rounds of debates with one final preliminary round, an awards ceremony, and elimination rounds (quarter finals, etc.) on Sunday. Founded just last year, the Bard Debate Team was named Program of the Year by the Society Advocating More and Better Argumentation (SAMBA), one of the national organizations that govern college debate, and Best New Debate Program of the Year by Columbia University. The team received 28 awards during the 2004–05 year and 10 awards already this year. Returning members of the Bard Debate Team are Litta Naukushu (captain), Nathan Sweed, Reanna Blackford, Kelly DeToy, Brad Powles, Noah Weston, and Ravenna Wilson. New members are Lisa Dratch, Angelina Fox, Cassie Cornell, Travis Rubury, Beverley Annan, Rushaine McKenzie, Neesha Fakir, and David Duckler. Ruth Zisman is director of debate, Stephen Davis ’05 is assistant coach, and Jonathan Becker, dean of international studies, is faculty adviser for the debate team. For further information, call Ruth Zisman at 845-758-6822, ext. 6144, e-mail [email protected], or visit student.bard.edu/clubs/debate. # # # (12.09.05)

This event was last updated on 01-31-2006

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