here - College of Arts & Sciences - Bethel University

can help, that means I get to bring in the weighing mechanisms that I would use in my
life to help me make a personal decision, mechanisms that you may have no idea about
but that I have done research on. Also, it is important that you tell me the role of the
judge in the round. I am currently working on trying to figure out what the point of the
judge is in the performance/activist round, so if you want me to try and look at it the way
you do, you need to tell me your views on the idea. Finally, I will not vote for affirmative
or negative teams that claim to use critical arguments as a way of advancing pluralism in
the debate community while silencing the other team’s voices through certain models of
adjudication or not allowing them to access the kritik. Also, I am a fan of critical
positions; however, many performance projects don’t mention the critical aspect of the
performance, which is what I consider to be a large reason why performance is so
powerful. If you are going to do a performance, you need to explain how this is
advancing the/a critical theory, don’t just perform and not explain to me why this
particular performance helps to illustrate critical theory.
Any additional comments:
Simon, Ammon
Wheaton College
Background of the critic:
Rounds judges this year: 100+
I debated for four years parli at Wheaton, although the first few years were spent trying to
figure out what the heck was going on (my first year was our parli program’s first year). I
attended NPTE last year and attended NPDA in some form or another (one year was just
spent watching) for four years. You’ll probably recognize me as the tallest person at the
tournament.
Approach of the critic to decision-making (for example, adherence to the trichotomy,
stock-issues, policymaker, tabula rasa, etc.):
My overarching principle in judging rounds is to vote on the arguments that are made in
the round, without any sort of bias for or against a certain style of debate, a type of
argument, or any sort of political considerations. In that respect, I have a fairly simple
judging philosophy. Debate well, no matter what the format, and you’ll do fine. If you
are in a hurry, you can probably skip the rest of this and you’ll do fine.
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