Georgetown is Crowned National Universities Debate Champions Two Years in a Row

Georgetown University in Qatar’s (GU-Q) student debate team continues to dominate the nation’s debate circuit as they are crowned the Qatar University Debate League (QUDL) Nationals champions for the second year in a row.

At this year’s competition organized by QatarDebate and held in the HBKU student center on March 29th and 30th, 2019, GU-Q was represented by two outstanding teams. Taking home the overall winner’s trophy was the team comprised of Khansa Maria (Class of 2021) and Mudassar Raza Shakir (Class of 2021), who overcame stiff competition from Qatar University, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, and HBKU in the final round. The duo also brought home individual honors, with Khansa winning for Best Speaker at Nationals and Mudassar winning the award for 3rd Best Speaker at Nationals and 5th Best in the League.

The other GU-Q team included students Khushboo Shah (Class of 2022) and Taha Kaleem Bukhari (Class of 2022), with Khushboo winning the honor for 9th Best Speaker at Nationals.

The Dean of GU-Q, Dr. Ahmad Dallal, said: “Good debate takes a solid academic foundation along with both critical and quick thinking. The process of developing these skills and then applying them in a friendly atmosphere has a transformative effect, and serves as a vital training ground for our students of international affairs.”

For Khansa, the GU-Q curriculum and classroom experience played an important role in preparing for the competition, which doesn’t allow internet access or use of any external references. “We have mandatory courses in a wide range of topics in government, economics, theology, and sociology, so we are prepared for any number of debate topics that come our way,” explained Khansa.  She went on to add, “we also have to work with partners, delegate tasks, manage our time, and write papers with substantial arguments based on sound argumentation.”

When the debate team isn’t competing in national and international competitions, they are working hard as a team to hone their skills. “Throughout the year, our team meets weekly for practice debates. We also organize regular campus events to encourage critical thinking on different issues,” said Mudassar. The team also runs their own tournament – The Georgetown Open – which takes place in the Fall semester, and is open to any debate team in Qatar.

This year, the team also launched “The Debate Learning Series” – workshops that focus on different aspects of debate, such as argument structure, the art of refutation, and the steps needed to build a case. All Debate Team workshops and practices are also open to non team members to encourage the entire campus community to discover debate, or to improve their skills.