Selecting Seminars

LOS ANGELES, Cali. — VBI Session II@UCLA is a unique camp in that the topic that students debate — the actual September/October resolution — is released midway through camp. Lab time and modules in the first week focus on skill-building drills. In addition to labs and elective modules, students at Session II elect three philosophy-based seminars that they take throughout the first week of camp. The descriptions for these seminars are available here.

TIME SLOT A

Critical Reflections on the Bush Administration (Jake Gelfand)

Using contemporary philosophy to analyze current events provides a very useful and politically relevant way to approach almost every debate resolution. This seminar will focus on some important issues and events during the two terms of George W. Bush, bringing up a number of philosophies and issues that will certainly arise in debates next year and in subsequent years. The seminar will begin by looking at the controversial election of 2000, using it as a basis to discuss democracy, critical discourse, and political argumentation, including such topics as free speech, surveillance, and secrecy. The second meeting will focus on Hurricane Katrina, discussing the politics of disposability and larger issues of race and how they are depicted in the media and in mainstream political dialogue. The final meeting will focus on terrorism and general international relations, looking at the ways threats are constructed both in America and abroad. We will talk about war, crime, and punishment in an international context, and what can be done in the future to make things better.

The readings for the seminar will all reference critical/continental philosophy, including Foucault, Agamben, Butler, Derrida, and Baudrillard. Some familiarity with critical theory and these authors will be very helpful in approaching the readings and discussions, and thus the seminar is geared toward more advanced debaters.

Political Paradigms: Criticism, Revolution and Realist Governance (Stephen Babb)

This seminar frames much of what passes as post-modern and cultural critiques against the duel opposition of (leftist) revolutionary politics and the (conservative) risk-society, which situates the state as a Machiavellian guard against external and internal threats. Our first session explores defenses of and reactions against “post-modernity,” nihilism, deconstruction, and identity politics. Debaters often struggle to reconcile a kritik or critical analysis with more straightforward impacts, but they won’t after this seminar. The second will explore the justifications and consequences of revolution, with special focuses on the most recent work of Slavoj Zizek & Alain Badiou. The last session will examine the paradigm typical of most policy-makers, which assesses risks. This will include justifications for using the paradigm, tensions with critical and revolutionary perspectives, and an analysis of how specific impacts (public health, WMD attack, oil shock) are assessed by the state.

This seminar gives debaters the means to justify the conceptual apparatuses that underlie many of the standards used in debate. Students will be able to defend their impact story at a paradigmatic level, rather than via simple quantitative comparison or “intuitive” assertion.

Foundation of Ethics (Douglas Jeffers & Ryan Hamilton)

Moral relativism (claiming that morality varies between cultures or persons), skepticism (claiming that morality is unknowable), and nihilism (claiming that morality doesn’t exist) are positions that are often taken in debate rounds. To refute them soundly requires one to answer that rather deep question: what are ethics based on? In this seminar we will examine two theories on this subject: those of Immanuel Kant (who sought to found ethics on reason) and Aristotle (who sought to found ethics on a theory of the Supreme Good for Man). In addition to these two theories, we will discuss several other answers to skepticism and relativism.

Real Work “Risk”: An Introduction to International Relations (Ryan Lawrence)

If you have ever played Risk, you know that great power politics prevail. Do you cooperate to crush a common foe or stab your ally in the back? This seminar will provide students with an introduction to the basic theories of international relations: realism, liberalism, neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, and constructivism. We will read primary texts in order to go beyond the simple analyses that you hear in debate rounds, such as a three sentence summary of neorealism in a Mearsheimer card. Special emphasis will be placed on the debate between neorealism and neoliberal institutionalism, given that in LD many debaters tend to simply grant a realist world.

Rights Theory (Patrick Diehl)

If you are interested in why you live in a democracy, then you have come to the right place. The seminar will begin by discussing the foundations of rights, and the basic theories of how they are understood. This will include natural rights, the social construction of rights, and legal positivism. Each subject will be discussed at length and with several authors. The seminar will then transition into how rights are appropriated in a democracy. This will explore the transition from ancient to modern democracy and the theories that marked each era. This will examine the history, structure, and intellectual notions of democracy. Finally, we will conclude the seminar with some more explicit debate applications of both subjects. This will include major criticisms of each field of thought, how to use, and how to defeat the use of either concept in debate cases.

War, Terror, and Security (John Lewis)

This seminar will go over the many issues, both philosophical and pragmatic, surrounding our attempt to defend against threats. We will use the War on Terror as a jumping off point to discuss broader ideas. The first session will cover the conflict scenarios like torture, wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, etc. which have become heated topics in political discourse and debate topics. The second session will discuss some of the more basic philosophical and legal dilemmas surrounding emergency powers. Finally, the third session will take a look at “postmodern” or “critical” authors, who discuss securitization from a number of perspectives.

TIME SLOT B

Deontology and its Discontents (Deepa Ramakrishnan & Marc Wallach)

This seminar will provide an overview on deontology: its origins, uses, criticisms, and its applicability to debate. Students will study the works of Nozick, Kant, and Ross to gain a greater understanding of different deontological theories and their nuances.

Feminisms, Queer Theory, and Identity Politics (Jon Cruz)

This three-part seminar introduces students to basic and advanced feminist philosophies and helps them to understand practical applications of such arguments in case-writing and in the round. Students will explore the three general waves of feminist thought, focusing with some depth on queer theory (Judith Butler), intersectionality (Angela Davis), feminist critiques of science (Donna Haraway), and feminist critiques of politics and international relations (Christine Di Stefano, Carol Pateman, Nancy Hartsock, and Jean Bethke Elshtain). In rethinking how to interpret resolutions, standards, and impacts along feminist lines, students may well find themselves inspired to rethink how they interpret the world around them.

Feminism in the 21st Century (Gary Johnson)

Women (and men) have organized in a multitude of ways over the last several hundred years to demand better economic, political, and social conditions for women, which has not only directly improved the lives of women, but also the lives of children, families, and men. This seminar will survey some of the most pressing issues facing women in our modern world by examining women’s access to political power, array of economic opportunities, and freedom from violence and control over their bodies. All issues will be examined from both a domestic and transnational context. Finally, every meeting will discuss the methods for debaters to implement feminist arguments on past and proposed resolutions.

Kantian Autonomy (Andy Werner)

In this seminar, I will go over the basics of Kant’s moral theory, demonstrating how Kant is actually quite a radical thinker and does not deserve his reputation in the LD canon as a trite and basic thinker of the categorical imperative. The third section will cover different philosophers’ criticisms of and reactions to Kant’s work. At the very least, every single philosopher after Kant has been - in one way or another - deeply influenced by this foundational thinker.

Performativity (Kristen Ray)

Using gender and sexuality as the jumping off point, this seminar will examine the idea that identity is constituted through action– that one’s self is performed. This has had significant implications on 20th century philosophy, psychoanalysis and gender theory, but it is also central to the concerns of debate. Performance, discursive power and identity politics are fundamentally tied to what we do in case and in round, as well as how we create our community. Readings will be drawn from scholars such as Judith Butler, Judith Halberstam, and Jacques Lacan.

The Capitalism (Wesley Craven)

This seminar will teach you everything you need to know about Capitalism. The first session will go through the genesis of capital and market exchange as an economic arrangement, followed by the second session devoted to the multitudes of different perspectives offered about capitalism in the modern era. The final session will be devoted entirely to capitalism in debate rounds. Any student taking this seminar should have a fully stocked cap file by the end.

TIME SLOT C

Culture and Control (Dan Jennis)

Popular culture is a source of enjoyment and leisure for millions of Americans, but our obsession with fame and wealth is also costing us our freedom. In this seminar, we will explore the connection between mainstream culture and control - examining the ways in which notions of the popular produce conformity, distraction, and obedience. The first session will explore the field of cultural criticism, the second session will examine post-Marxist and Postmodern critiques of consumerism, while the third session will focus on contemporary manifestations of cultural crisis.

Legal Normativity and Sovereignty (Andy Werner)

In this seminar I will concentrate on the conceptualization of sovereignty as articulated by Carl Schmitt and criticized by Giorgio Agamben. Agamben contends that the paradigm of modernity is the camp, and that we are all virtually in a camp right now. The readings will primarily be from Agamben’s book Homo Sacer, though we will use that to discuss the works of Schmitt and the fascinating Marxist thinker Walter Benjamin. It will be helpful for articulating an interesting framework, as well as for criticizing certain traditional criterial frameworks like social contract theories.

The Origins of the State: The Social Contract and Beyond (Mira Chernick)

Taxes, jury duty, speed limits, and a minimum drinking age: all restrictions or requirements imposed by the government. So why do we tolerate it? Why have a government in the first place? This seminar will answer these questions and more through an exploration of the social contract. We will start with an overview of social contract theory, discussing concepts such as the state of nature, natural rights, positive and negative obligations, tacit consent, and the right of revolt. We will then discuss how these concepts apply to debate, focusing specifically on the ten topics proposed for the upcoming debate season. Finally, we will explore a range of objections to social contract theory, again with a focus on debate applicability.

The State (Wesley Craven)

This seminar will explore the contemporary justifications for state action in three different debate-relevant spheres; the authority of sovereignty, global justice and civil society and resistance/anarchism. We will explore the deeper concepts of social control and the discursive tools used to maintain, reform and deconstruct that control. This seminar is for all levels of debate.

Skepticism and Relativism (Peter D. Van Elswyk)

This seminar would cover the various theses of skeptical argumentation. Meeting one will discuss epistemological skepticism, meeting two will discuss linguistic/semiotic skepticism, and meeting three will discuss moral skepticism. The seminar will focus on understanding and answering these arguments.

Why Debaters Are Obsessed With Science Fiction: The Interaction of Science and Philosophy (Melanie Plaza)

The scientific method is more than the set of steps that annoys you when you are doing required labs in school; it is also the underlying process with which facts about the natural world are derived. We will understand the scientific method in greater depth and in doing so better understand the scientific and philosophical claims that it results in. Then we’ll see what happens when science and philosophy marry and why they may file for divorce as we discuss the incorporation of scientific methodology and data in philosophy as well as the philosophical underpinnings of scientific theories. In understanding the logical processes through which many schools of thought originate, it will be easier to fully comprehend such ideas and how to refute them. Although understanding some of the concepts can get a bit tedious, the readings will be very accessible. Ultimately, we will have multiple ways to answer the question “why are debaters obsessed with science fiction?,” multiple reasons why we can’t answer the question, and multiple reasons why our previous assessments were flawed.

TIME SLOT D

Discourse and Language in Debate (Mira Chernick/Ben Clancy)

This seminar will focus on modern theories on discourse and language and its relation to debate. The first half of the seminar will discuss theories on the relationship between sign and signified, with a focus on Derrida and Nietzsche. The second half of the lecture will discuss language in terms of discourse and its application to debate, in relation to Foucault and Habermas’ ideas.

Justice, Group Identity, and Oppression (Chris Castillo)

Questions of justice and what ought to be are fundamental to Lincoln Douglas Debate. Unfortunately, the paradigms debaters apply to answer such questions have grown repetitive and uncritical. Borrowing from the works of Iris Marion Young, we will discuss the shortcomings of traditional paradigms of justice as well as ways of re-constructing a more comprehensive scheme of justice. Ideally, justice should be concerned with equal access to decision making structures and the minimization of oppression. We will analyze the function of social context in normative debate; examine the relationship between social groups and claims of justice, and understand the interaction between group differences and oppression. Finally, this module will make reference to writings on racism and the law in order to situate our findings.

Our objective is to identify the dominant paradigms of justice in LD debate and discuss their shortcomings. In doing so, we will interject concepts such as the social group, difference, and oppression (and some excitement) into normative debate.

Law’s Violence (Anjan Choudhury)

Law holds us tightly in her grasp, and when we seek to escape, strikes out at us with such force that we are left only to beg her to take us back. Law’s violence is both fearless and seductive. Law stands at the center of society (especially for a lawyer like me) and debate (especially for a debater like you). So, it seems almost impossible to imagine success either as a lawyer or as a debater without interrogating the threshold question: What is the relationship between law and violence? This seminar will bring you to that question. We will begin with one of the most famous ideas in legal and jurisprudential theory — the suggestion by Yale Law Professor Robert Cover that law is violent. Proceeding from Cover, we will ask two related questions: (1) How does the law collect power over violence? (2) How does the law dispense violence?

Before you begin to imagine this seminar as one of those completely theoretical mind games, this seminar will also be pulling from case studies from my own work as a lawyer and study at Harvard Law School. The ultimate goal here will be to wrap our collective mind over the concept of law as “a (legitimate) monopoly of force.” As you might imagine from past experience, an understanding of how law relates to power, authority, and most importantly, violence, is not only helpful but actually essential for debate given the proliferation of legal topics. This seminar is intended for all levels, as I contend that there is no debater or citizen who can escape the forceful hand of the law.

Rethinking the Enlightenment (Marc Wallach & Anna Ward)

What was the Enlightenment, and why–in Theodor Adorno’s words–is the “wholly enlightened earth…radiant with triumphant calamity?” Using excerpts from Immanuel Kant and Theodor Adorno, this seminar will seek to not only understand the project of the Enlightenment, but also critique it. Given that many debates include Enlightenment-related ideas such as autonomy, this seminar’s problematization of such concepts should prove valuable.

Transitions to Democracy (Ryan Lawrence)

This seminar will examine previous democratic transitions and use them in order to discuss the prospects for future democratic transitions, such as the possibility for China to democratize or the compatibility of Islam and democracy. We will begin with a discussion of basic democratic theory, including different interpretations of democracy, and then apply those concepts to evaluate real-world democratic transitions. This seminar is intended for all debaters.

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