UNSW’s student debating ‘A’ team reached the quarter finals and had the top-ranked female debater at the World Championships.
UNSW’s student debaters achieved the University’s highest-ever result at the World Universities Debating Championship in Panama City in January.
The UNSW ‘A’ team – recent Law and Criminology graduate Conna Leslie and third-year Economics and Arts (Politics/International Relations) student Lachie Doyle – reached the quarter finals after nine preliminary rounds and several outrounds.
The team is now ranked sixth in the world, with Conna ranked the eighth best individual debater in the world and Lachie ranked 10th.
Conna said the team received strong support from the University.
“We received enormous support from Arc Clubs in particular, who funded us very generously – and to whom we are extremely grateful – on the promise that we would faithfully represent UNSW and Australia. It feels great to deliver on that promise.”
Conna was the highest-ranking female debater at the championships, with only one other woman placing in the top 10.
"I wish I could say the highest-ranked woman in the world was higher than eighth. Of course, I’m extremely proud, but it shows we still have a long way to go. So often, female orators in many contexts are called ‘shrill’, ‘angry’ or ‘uncharismatic’ for presenting in the same ways that their male counterparts are praised for. In debating, that shows up in individual speaker scores.”
A strong performance from UNSW’s ‘B’ team
More than 200 teams representing approximately 50 universities competed in the championships.
UNSW sent three teams of two debaters each, as well as two adjudicators, to the competition. In addition to the quarter-final finish for the A team, UNSW’s B team reached the octofinals. Dartmouth A team were the overall championship winners in a competition using the ‘British Parliamentary’ format, based on parties in coalition.
“In this format, there are two ‘government’ teams (opening and closing government) and two ‘opposition’ teams (opening and closing opposition). We had to back our side of the topic but also explain why we’d done a better job of proving our side of the topic than the other team,” Conna said.
“Our favourite topic was, ‘This house believes that the United States involvement in Panama has been good for Panama’.”
This year, members of the UNSW Debating Society will compete at the Australian, Australasian, Australasian Women and Gender Minorities and World Championships.
“Lachie and I are also appearing at the eleventh edition of the Shanghai International Debate Open, by invitation, as ‘Team Australia’ in April,” Conna said.
Main Image: Conna Leslie and Lachie Doyle holding 10th and 8th best speaker awards. The design is traditional Panamanian mola designs, the textile art of the indigenous Guna people.
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