LD at the UTNIF
The UTNIF Lincoln-Douglas workshop is open to students of all skill levels. The purpose of the workshop is to prepare students to compete in regional LD competition. The workshop will focus on developing fundamentals and building a repertoire of arguments that will last through topic rotations.
Students will learn from curriculum director Ari Davidson. Ari Davidson (she/they pronouns) is joining the University of Texas as a graduate teaching assistant this fall. She is a recent graduate from Wake Forest University, where she participated in Policy debate for four years. Ari was the 2023 American Debate Association national champion and the 2023 Cross Examination Debate Association national champion. She also received invites to multiple prestigious Round Robins such as at Dartmouth and Weber State, was a 3-time First Round At Large Bid to the NDT (honoring the Top 16 teams of the regular season), won multiple major national tournaments including Gonzaga and the American Debate Association National Championship, and was a Top-10 speaker at every tournament she attended her senior year. In high school, Ari competed for Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles, CA, primarily in Lincoln-Douglas debate. In her senior year of high school, Ari reached the elimination rounds of the TOC, won several major national tournaments including the Octafinals-bid St. Marks, and was a leader of a squad that still holds the LD record for the most team bids to the TOC in a single season. While Ari primarily specialized in Kritikal arguments throughout her college career, she has always valued flexibility in both argumentation and knowledge in order to help debaters become the best versions of themselves that they can be. Ari is very excited to work with everyone at the UTNIF this summer!