Lovett,+Julia

I debated for four years at Kinkaid in Houston, TX and am now a student and debater at Georgetown. I judged at the UT debate camp tournament this summer, so I am familiar with this year’s topic in a broad sense.

I’m open to all arguments, but have a high threshold for specificity especially when it comes to kritiks and topicality. I’m not opposed to topicality debates, but please please please give __realistic__ examples of cases that would unlimit the topic within a given interpretation. Articulate specific examples of abuse. Just because you’re going for topicality or theory doesn’t mean you can’t get away without impacting your arguments.

Don’t forget about the 1AC. I feel like both the aff and neg have a tendency to forget about the debate’s first eight minutes, but the debate will be so much better if you reference specific 1AC evidence in subsequent speeches. I expect whatever the negative’s links are to reference specific 1AC claims, and the affirmative should also never forget the value of the 1AC when responding to various arguments.

I really enjoy CP debates. I have a soft spot for tricky counter plans, but your meat and potatoes CPs are great too. Avoid completely contrived net-benefits. Be sure to compare the world of the CP to the world of the plan and articulate clear net-benefits and disads to each world. I don’t have any real predispositions to certain theoretical statuses or kinds of CPs being good or bad – I think that’s determined on a round to round basis and it’s your job to resolve those questions for me.

Kritik debates are great as long as they’re a platform for something substantive and not just a fragmented hodge-podge of important thinkers you deploy trying to avoid the topic. I think alternatives and impacts (not necessarily extinction, but the implications of your argument) are important.

Most importantly, HAVE FUN! Be nice to each other. Don’t raise your voice during CX. Also, use CX as a tool, not to be like, “So….uh….what’s like the inherent barrier to your plan?” If you execute funny jokes well, I’ll probably give you better speaker points.