AVAILABLE PACKAGES

Scheduling Notes

Since the NSDA releases the list of potential topics in late June, sessions beginning July 1 will use the potential topics for the 2026–2027 season; sessions after August 1 will use the confirmed September/October 2026 topic.

I’m happy to discuss the curriculum with coaches before we begin, and I can tailor the sessions to the circuit your student is most likely to compete in.

I will be at the NSDA National Tournament from June 13–21, so I will likely not be available for sessions. I will also be directing a camp at Macalester College from June 28–July 10, so my availability during that period will be limited.

Because of these scheduling restrictions, space will be limited and sessions will be scheduled on a first come, first served basis. You may schedule all of your sessions up front, or book them as needed.

Any unused summer sessions may be applied during the season at the same discounted rate.

UPDATE: The NSDA has released the potential topics for the 2026/2027 Season. Here are the potential topics for the first two of the season in LD & PF:

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS
September/October

• Resolved: Outer space colonization is a moral imperative.

• Resolved: Keeping wild animals in zoos is immoral.

November/December

• Resolved: De-extinction is unethical.

• Resolved: The United States ought to vest ecosystems with legal rights.

PUBLIC FORUM
September/October

• Resolved: The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.

• Resolved: The United States federal government should enact an emissions trading system.

November December

• Resolved: European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

• Resolved: The Republic of Korea should pursue an independent nuclear deterrent.

TOPIC HEAD START Public Forum: OVERVIEWS OF THE Potential 2026 Sept/Oct & Nov/Dec TOPICS (6 one-hour sessions)

In late June, the National Speech and Debate Association will release its list of potential Public Forum topics for the 2026–2027 season. This six-session package offers a focused survey of the potential topics for September/October, and November/December. For each topic area, I will provide an overview of the main issues as well as case and argument strategy.

This six-session package is designed as an introduction and survey of the potential topics. The twelve-session package goes much more in depth and covers more advanced strategy. (Note: If you schedule a session prior to July 1, we will need to discuss what will be covered knowing the topic-specific overviews will be truncated).

Price: $970 (10% off normal hourly rate)

Political & Moral Philosophy for Debate (10 One-Hour Sessions)

This intensive one-on-one course equips debaters with the philosophical frameworks and moral reasoning skills that separate good arguments from great ones. Over ten focused sessions, students move beyond surface-level policy claims to engage the foundational questions that drive real-world controversy, questions about justice, rights, authority, legitimacy, and the limits of state power.

Each session pairs a core philosophical tradition or thinker with direct debate applications, so students immediately see how Rawlsian fairness, utilitarian calculus, or natural rights theory functions inside a round. By the end of the course, students can identify the moral architecture of any resolution, anticipate value clashes before they happen, and construct, or dismantle, principled arguments with precision.

What students will cover:
• Foundations of moral reasoning — deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics, and contractarianism as debate lenses
• Political authority & legitimacy — Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, and the social contract tradition
• Justice frameworks — Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, Nozick’s libertarian critique, and distributive justice debates
• Rights theory — negative vs. positive rights, human rights foundations, and competing claims of liberty and equality
• Democracy & political obligation — majoritarianism, civil disobedience, and the ethics of dissent
• Utilitarianism in policy debate — Mill, Bentham, and the limits of cost-benefit reasoning in round
• Moral realism vs. relativism — how to defend (or challenge) universal ethical standards
• Applied political ethics — war, punishment, free speech, civil liberties, and global justice

Price: $1530 (10% off normal hourly rate)

Concepts of Critical Theory for Debate (10 One-Hour Sessions)

This intensive one-on-one course introduces debaters to the tradition of critical theory, the philosophical movement that challenges the assumptions, power structures, and hidden values embedded in mainstream political thought. Over ten focused sessions, students learn to recognize, construct, and answer the kritik arguments that increasingly appear at every level of competitive debate.

Each session pairs a foundational critical theorist or school of thought with direct debate applications, so students immediately understand how Marxist critique, Foucauldian power analysis, or feminist standpoint theory functions inside a round. By the end of the course, students can identify the critical architecture of any resolution, anticipate framework clashes between policy and critical positions, and deploy, or dismantle, kritik arguments with philosophical precision.

Prerequisite: A solid understanding of political and moral philosophy is required. Critical theory is, at its core, a response to and critique of the liberal, Enlightenment, and contractarian traditions, students who have not engaged those foundations will struggle to understand what critical theory is arguing against.

What students will cover:

• What is critical theory? — The Frankfurt School, ideology critique, and why critical theory challenges the neutrality of traditional debate frameworks
• Marxism and material critique — class, capitalism, and the limits of liberal rights frameworks in round
• Foucault and power — discourse, discipline, and how power operates through knowledge claims and institutions
• Race and critical race theory — whiteness, structural racism, and antiblackness as debate arguments
• Feminist and gender theory — patriarchy, standpoint epistemology, and the politics of who gets to speak
• Postcolonial theory — Said, Fanon, and the critique of Eurocentric frameworks in global policy debate
• Queer theory — heteronormativity, identity, and destabilizing fixed categories in argument and advocacy
• Settler colonialism and Indigenous critique — land, sovereignty, and arguments that challenge the state as a legitimate actor
• Kritik structure and strategy — link, impact, and alternative construction; going for the K on the line; answering framework turns

Price: $1530 (10% off normal hourly rate)