WCMC-Q Debate Team Returns to World Stage

February 2010

Four members of the WCMC-Q Debating Society recently traveled to Istanbul, Turkey to take part in the 30th World Universities Debating Championship. Premedical students Emad Mansour Alam, Arunima Bera, Mariam Gabrial and Zahra Naqvi represented the college at the nine-day gathering, going head-to-head with some of the best university debaters from around the world.

Arunima Bera, who was also part of the WCMC-Q winning team at the Qatar national debate championships, says that the two competitions couldn’t be more different.

“The Worlds were huge compared to the Nationals. And there was so much diversity, with about 350 teams coming from all over the world,” she said.

The greatest challenge Bera and her teammates faced in the tournament was an unfamiliar format. Debates in the World Championships are structured differently than those organized by Qatar Debate, and require a vastly different strategy. “We were literally learning on our feet,” Bera said.

After a disappointing result on the first day, the WCMC-Q teams regrouped. “We decided to really test ourselves and see where we can improve, and we won our first debate on the second day. We got one point overall on the first day, but seven on the second. That was a huge turnaround.”

Rodney Sharkey, PhD, assistant professor of writing at WCMC-Q and debate team coach, sees promise in the Debating Society’s future in world competition.

“As of the beginning of this year, WCMC-Q is ranked at a very respectable 168 out of the 320 universities registered. With a good showing in the 2011 World Championships in Botswana, WCMC-Q could be among the top 100 debating universities,” he said.

Sharkey notes that the true value of the competition lies not in rankings, but in the experience and the skills debating fosters for the students.

“Exposure to the best of university quality debating in this intense environment is a transformative experience for the students. Over the course of the tournament, I can see this transformation in confidence, articulation–those things that are essential to their future careers as doctors. This is arguably the best possible training they can get to be efficient communicators,” he said.

This is the second year WCMC-Q students have taken part in the World Championships. In 2009, the Medical College and three other Doha universities comprised the first representatives from the Middle East to take part in the competition. This year, participating universities from Qatar also included Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Carnegie Mellon University and College of the North Atlantic.

Report by Chris Gibbons

Additional photos:

After each day's debates, the evenings left time for things like friendly practice matches with Georgetown Univerisity, and catching up with the Cornell Ithaca debate team (seen above with the WCMC-Q team).

After the competition, the students took in the sights and sounds in Istanbul. Here they experience traditional Turkish dishes and music at a local restaurant.

A bit of local culture: the students explore the Hagia Sophia.