Louisville Project
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{{Policy Debate}}
The Louisville Project was a project by the University of Louisville's policy debate team (the University of Louisville Debate Society or ULDS) to increase meaningful minority participation in debate, which started in 2000.
Led by Coach Ede Warner, the Louisville Project eschewed traditional forms of debating like speed reading, debating the resolution, and presenting traditional forms of evidence. The project instead used hip hop music, personal experiences, and other media to present their arguments. They argued that many elements of policy debate are exclusionary and thus limit diversity in debate.{{cite news |last=Bowman |first=Mallory |url=https://www.louisvillecardinal.com/2004/09/the-louisville-project/ |title=The Louisville Project |date=September 21, 2004 |work=The Louisville Cardinal |access-date=October 22, 2023}}{{cite news |last1=Lannen |first1=Steve |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/lexington-herald-leader-about-the-louisv/133861618/ |title=Changing the Rules; UofL's debate team challenges convention during its competitions |work=Lexington Herald-Leader |via=Newspapers.com |date=October 11, 2004 |pages=A1, A6 |access-date=October 22, 2023}}
History
In 2005, Louisville started a "Take it to the Streets" initiative in which they offered to debate the topic normally if the judge was replaced with a layperson.{{cite news |last=Nguyen |first=Lan |url=https://www.louisvillecardinal.com/2005/12/team-debates-the-system/ |title=Team debates the system |date=December 10, 2005 |work=The Louisville Cardinal |access-date=October 22, 2023}} Because of the time required to find a new critic, the rounds were to take place with reduced speech times, approximately equivalent to those of Lincoln-Douglas debate. Most teams accepted the agreement and Louisville lost the vast majority of those debates.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}
In November 2005, Ede Warner announced, on the collegiate debate message board eDebate, his resignation as the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) 2nd vice president,{{cite web |url=http://www.ndtceda.com/pipermail/edebate/2005-November/thread.html |title=November 2005 Archives by thread: Resignation as 2nd Vice President (thread text unavailable)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111001451/http://www.ndtceda.com:80/pipermail/edebate/2005-November/thread.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 11, 2009 |accessdate=October 22, 2023}} canceled the University of Louisville's debate tournament (the "Super Bowl of Debate"),{{cite web |url=http://www.ndtceda.com/pipermail/edebate/2005-November/thread.html |title=November 2005 Archives by thread: Canceling the Superbowl (thread text unavailable)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111001451/http://www.ndtceda.com:80/pipermail/edebate/2005-November/thread.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 11, 2009 |accessdate=October 22, 2023}} and announced his plans to stop recruiting debaters and retire in 5 years.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} This is regarded by many in the debate community as the beginning of the end of the Louisville Project.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}
Louisville continued "The Project" through the 2006–2007 season and became self-titled as the MPOWER (Multi-cultural policy organizing with emancipatory rhetoric) Movement. The MPOWER Movement sought to implement policies into the debate community that would enhance multi-cultural education in collegiate debate. Louisville advocated a 10-demand plan which was distributed to the debate community during the 2006–07 season at competitions. The team used these points to support their argument that collegiate debate is currently exclusive of minority groups based on race, economics, gender, sexuality and communicative differences. The success of the Louisville team fluctuated during the 2006–07 season. In the end, two teams qualified for elimination rounds at CEDA Nationals where two members also received speaking awards.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}
Legacy
Other colleges continued the mission of the project in various ways. Using techniques pioneered by Louisville, in 2013 Emporia State University's Ryan Wash and Elijah Smith won both the National Debate Tournament and the Cross Examination Debate Association tournament.{{cite news |last=Robertson |first=Joe |url=https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article165820152.html |title=Can't argue with success: Cutting-edge style wins big for Emporia State debate team |date=August 7, 2017 |work=The Kansas City Star |access-date=October 22, 2023}}{{cite magazine |last=Kraft |first=Jessica Carew |author-link=Jessica Carew Kraft |date=April 16, 2014 |title=Hacking Traditional College Debate's White-Privilege Problem |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/04/traditional-college-debate-white-privilege/360746/ |access-date=October 22, 2023 |magazine=The Atlantic}}
In media
- Louisville was featured prominently in the National Debate Tournament documentary on CBS College Sports Network.{{cite web|url=http://www.cstv.com/cstv/programming/debate/debate1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060310050106/http://www.cstv.com/cstv/programming/debate/debate1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 10, 2006 |title=CSTV - The National Collegiate Debate Championship |website=Cstv.com |date= |access-date=2017-04-18}}
- The 2007 HBO Documentary Resolved featured a team from Jordan High School that competed using the ideals of The Project.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080119073328/http://comm.louisville.edu/~debate/ UofLDebate.com]
- {{cite news |last=Kang |first=Jay Caspian |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/opinion/debate-critical-race-theory.html |title=How a '00s College Debate Team Predicted Today's Culture Wars |work=The New York Times |date=August 16, 2021 |access-date=October 22, 2023}}
- {{cite book |last=Reid-Brinkley |first=Shanara R. |editor-last1=Eidsheim |editor-first1=Nina Sun |editor-last2=Meizel |editor-first2=Katherine |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28026/chapter-abstract/211848679?redirectedFrom=fulltext |title=The Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies |chapter=11 Voice Dipped in Black: The Louisville Project and the Birth of Black Radical Argument in College Policy Debate |pages=214–233 |publisher=Oxford Academic |date=June 13, 2019 |access-date=October 22, 2023}}
Category:University of Louisville
Category:2000 establishments in Kentucky