New Website Features Debate Coaches Debating and Blogging

On September 12, I'm launching a web site called www.thepermutation.com. This site is intended to be a forum for analysis, opinion, and research from both the academic communication community and the ranks of competitive debate coaches. We have a group of regular bloggers from the communication world that I'm really proud to be working with -- Shawn Powers from Georgia State University, Gordon Stables from USC, Cate Palczewski from the University of Northern Iowa, David Cisneros from Northeastern University, and Kristy Maddux from the University of Maryland.

In addition to the blogs the site will host, we’re going to be publishing weekly debates between coaches on issues that are of interest to the general public. There will be two coaches in each debate, one affirmative and the other negative. The affirmative coach will write an initial affirmation of the topic that will be posted on Monday. On Tuesday, we will post the negative coach's response. On Wednesday, we will post the affirmative coach's final reply. On Thursday, we will post the negative coach's final reply. Our first debate will feature Ed Lee and Ryan Galloway, who have been gracious enough to agree to debate reversing the Bush tax cuts for us. We’re hoping that some of you will be willing to participate in future debates on the site, or will at least assist us by submitting ideas for future debate topics. Abi Smith Williams will be acting as Director of Debate for the site.

Our goal is also for folks from the broader community of communication scholars to submit their own blog entries to the site. Part of the purpose of the site is to provide a place where members of the academic world can write for the general population on topics related to their expertise. When the site goes live on September 12, there will be a link at the top of the page that provides information on how to submit material.

I hope all of you will find the time read the site and tell others about it if you find it interesting. It would be wonderful if members of the community who are communication scholars will consider submitting your own blogs to the site if you find a topic that inspires you. Even if you’re not a coach or a communication scholar, we’d appreciate it if you would give us ideas about sites, products, articles, and so on that might be interesting to our readers. The site will also provide a mechanism for you to submit that sort of information.

Dr. Joe Bellon
Director of Debate, Senior Lecturer in Communication
Georgia State University