@ BETTER DEBATE MANUAL
Thinking and Speaking a Better World
Co-Editors
Denis Horvat
Denis Horvat debated at high school level all four years and was one of the best debaters of his generation, debating in Slovenian and English at debate tournament in Slovenia and internationally, winning several of them and being among best speakers on regular basis. He was a member of Team Slovenia competing at Worlds Schools Debate Championship in 2013 in Turkey where Slovenia broke with 6 wins to the octofinals. Currently he is a philosophy student at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, occasionaly debating at university level and serving as trainer for other debaters whenever he is back in Slovenia.
Jure Hederih
Jure Hederih Jure is in his second year studying Medicine at the University of Oxford. He has been an active member of the Slovenian and international World Schools debating community. He has won the national schools competition several times, also topping the tab. He has broken at WSDC, made top 20 ESL speakers and broke at a number of other international tournaments, including Argo Open, Heart of Europe and Five Nation Tournament where he also topped the tab.
Since then he has represented the Oxford Union across the UK and Europe but also often attended a competition as a composite team. Medicine and debating aside, Jure also enjoys reading, sports and a calm evening with his friends.
Eva Nike Cvikl
Eva Nike is 23 years old. Debate has been an essential part of her life ever since she first joined her high school debate club in 2006. She has been a high school debater for three years, during which she has attended World Schools Debating Championships in 2008 and 2009, and many international tournaments, including IDEA Youth Forum 2007 in Czech Republic, Ljutomer International Debate Tournament in 2007 and 2008 and IDAS 2008.Afterwards, she took a break from debating for three years and she begun judging debate in both Karl Popper and WSD format. She has participated as a judge at various Slovene national tournaments, and she has been a breaking judge at Heart of Europe Debating Tournament in Olomouc in 2012 and 2013. In 2012, she also begun her comeback as a debater, and since then she has been a semifinalist at Budapest Open 2013 and Rijeka Open 2014, quaterfinalist and 3rd best speaker at IDAS 2013 and finalist and best speaker of Heart of Europe BP Track 2014. In 2014, she joined the Heart of Europe debating tournament as a member of chief adjudication team. Since 2013, she is also the coach of II. gimnazija Maribor Debate Club, the current Slovene national champions in both English and Slovene languages.
Bojana Skrt
Director
Za in proti
Bojana Skrt is a director of Slovenian national debate organisastion Za in proti, zavod za kulturo dialoga where she serves as a coordinator for national highschools and middle schools debate clubs networks, responsible for fundraising, promotion, outreach, training and coordination of debate activities. She prepared and run numerous national and international debate projects and serves as a trainer for teachers and trainer of trainers. She funded and run two international
training programs IDAS – International Debate Academy for university students and WSDA – Worlds Schools Debate Academy for high school students and co-funded the International Conference for Argumentation, Rhetoric, Debate and Pedagogy of Empowerement “Thinking and speaking a better world” She has been a coach of Team Slovenia debating at Worlds Schools Debate Championships for the last 15 years – breaking 7 times in the last 10 years, three times winning the award for the best English Foreign Language or English Second Language Team. Bojana Skrt is also a co-author of two debate manuals and several articles about debate. She can be contacted at bojana.skrt@gmail.com
Contributors
Anna England Kerr
Anna England Kerr has worked for a number of educational charities since 2008 when she began working for Pro et Contra, Institute for the Culture of Dialogue in Slovenia. During her time there she assisted with the organisation of and teaching at a number of Primary, Secondary and University Debate Academies as well as developing training materials for debating societies at the University of Ljubljana. She also had a wealth of freelance experience, having been hired to work on projects in
Slovenia (contracted by the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Hungary (in co-operation with the
International Debate Association), Serbia (in co-operation with the OSCE and Open Communications)
and China (for Beijing Foreign Studies University). In 2011 Anna was headhunted by the debating arm of Qatar Foundation – QatarDebate to run the English High School Debating programme, train the Qatari national High School team and oversee projects such as their collaborations with Qatar’s largest charity – Reach Out to Asia and the Qatar TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) conference. During her time at the University of Durham she was the Debates Training Secretary at the Durham Union Society.
Since going to work for the ESU as a Speech and Debate Projects Officer, Anna has taken over the Discover Your Voice programme which organises a variety of public speaking and debating workshops in primary and secondary schools across England and Wales. She curates and helps develop the training materials for the programme and also manages the ever expanding national network of experienced mentors that we train to deliver the Discover Your Voice workshops as well as facilitate other large scale projects such as the House of Lords Great Chamber Debate and teach at Debate Academy.
During her time in competitive debating at university level Anna was a EUDC Semi-Finalist 2013, Winner of the Manchester IV 2013, York IV 2013 and Zagreb Open 2010. She also reached the out-rounds of a number of other competitions including the LSE Open, Leiden Open and Warwick and Sheffield IVs. She has also CA’d a number of competitions including 2013 Sheffield IV, 2013 Newcastle IV, Estonian Open 2013 and most recently the 2014 Ljubljana IV. Whilst debating at high school for 4 years she was one of the best speakers in Slovenia of her generation, in Slovenian and English, being twice a member of Team Slovenia at Worlds Schools Debate Championship and the best speaker of team Slovenia that broke 8th at WSDC in South Korea.
Matúš Huba
Matúš Huba studies Law and Jurisprudence at the Charles University in Prague and recently finished a postgraduate International and European Law Programme at the University of Antwerp. He actively debates at the university level. He has been working for the Slovak Debate Association as a national and international judge and coach for the past four years. Matúš is also a member of the project committee at SDA.
Simona-Anca Mazilu
Simona-Anca Mazilu, teacher of English and debate coach, adjudicator and teacher-trainer, founded ARGO – the first academic debate club for high school students in Romania - in 1994. She was the coach of the national team for Romania’s first two participations in the Worlds Schools Debating Championship: in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2004, and in Calgary, Canada, in 2005 - when Romania won 2nd place in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) ranking. Ever since 2006, she has continued as an international judge, representing her country in this global event: Wales (2006), South Korea (2007), USA (2008), Greece (2009), Qatar (2010), Scotland (2011), South Africa (2012), Turkey (2013). In the 2008 WSDC in Washington D.C., she judged the grand final. Since 2004, she has also played an important part as the team manager for Romania, succeeding in raising funds in order to enable Romania’s uninterrupted participation in the WSDC. She has participated as a coach and/or judge in numerous IDEA (International Debate Education Association) Youth Forums, international competitions and tournaments, such as several editions of ESDC (European Schools Debating Championships, etc. She is the co-author of the first Academic Debate Handbook in Romania (1999) and has contributed numerous debate-related presentations, workshops and trainings on the occasion of various national and international events.
Matej Kóhar
Matej Kohár is a philosophy undergraduate at the University of Exeter where he has held the position of IV co-ordinator since March 2013. Since 2012 he has been a member of the Slovak Debate Association Training and Motions Committees. During his time in high school, he represented Slovakia in World Schools Debating Championship three times from 2010 to 2012. He also won the Slovak Debate League in 2011 and 2012 when he also won the Best Speaker award. He is an avid metalhead, and is the vocalist in a local black metal band.
mgr. Martin Rezny
Secretary
Czech Debating Society
READ MORE ABOUT MARTIN
CONTACT MARTIN
Nena Lejko
Nena Lejko is 21 years old, currently studying at University of Cambridge. She debated in highschool and as one of the best debaters of her generation she was twice selected as a member of Team Slovenia at Worlds Schools Debating Championship. After becoming the university student she joined Za in proti trainers and judging team, conducting trainings for high school students and judging at tournaments.
