The USC Annenberg Debate Squad, led by communication professor Gordon Stables , received a two-year grant totaling $591,000 from the Open Society Institute’s Foundation to Promote Open Society.
USC Annenberg Debate will work with the International Debate Education Association (IDEA) to help expand digital debating around the world. Work will include development of platforms for video and text debating. The project will also include the development of curriculum plans and new competition formats for digital debating. “We are very excited about the opportunity to work with such organizations to help promote academic debate in digital environments," Stables said. "This is a tremendous opportunity and it is made possible because of the USC Annenberg School’s emphasis on traditional programs, like debate, as well as innovation.” USC Annenberg students, both graduate and undergraduate, are involved in the research team with all aspects of the project. The project is an outgrowth of USC’s innovative Annenberg Digital Debate Initiative (ADDI) that produced digital debate competitions over the past two years, including debate tournaments on YouTube.
“It is a great opportunity for our students to help be at the forefront of debate innovation," Stables said. "USC Annenberg Debate will be involved in chartering the future of academic debate. I feel debate has the potential to be more important than ever as a means of educating students because it teachers advocacy and the ability to engage competing claims. With this project we are working to develop new frontiers of debate education."
