The Method to the Madness
The RKS isn’t your normal workshop…..
Breakout groups means you get it all - The RKS experience is customizable yet collective, and the curriculum is modular and tailored to the needs and desires of the students.
A breakout group for collaborative research that produces weekly waves of files. Research agendas are collectively decided upon according to where our interests and needs take us.
A breakout group for skills development and redos. That means you’re doing redos and drills almost every day on the debates you just had.
A breakout group for personalized research where you’ll work on things just for you. Use it to figure out how to make that jump in ethos, build a soundtrack to your AFF, write a tricky CounterPlan or Disad with CWal, rewind the tape and get nasty in the cross-x with DB, become a Moten scholar with Taylor, discover the hidden history of queer and trans activism or dive deep into Marx with Ari, Work with Ana to develop that perfect soft-left aff, or talk about the Nietzscheans and construct modular racial cap Ks with Amber. Or maybe you want to create an AFF on the side that you plan to run at the first couple tournaments that no one else has but you. You can do that, and you can do that with the top instructors in the country. All of them.
Signature Files - Each student works to produce their own signature file, plan-based or plan-less. You’ll be pushed and supported from start to finish through multiple drafts and subsequent mini-assignments so that your file is the culmination of a process that’s truly about you. Signature file creation teaches file construction in a way that lab research simply cannot. It’s both self-fulfilling and immensely helpful in teaching the nuances of strategy development, which is important whether you’re just starting to do your own research or when it’s the semis and the other team broke a new AFF to get the coaches out of the room.
Process over Product – We’re not here to just put out tons of files with cards that will never be read (though we do produce a lot of evidence). Here we step through the minutia of debate, and we place heavy emphasis on practice. Let’s run the tape on a famous debate and see how the neg lost it in the cross-x of the 2NC then do cross-x drills, skype in a star-debate alumnus to learn how effective impact framing can win your plan-based aff against the weird franken-K and test it out in the practice debate, learn how to quickly comb through evidence to generate offense or when to make strategic concessions. Understanding the meta-level issues as well as the minutia of execution are essential to the strategic finesse that wins top-level debates. Rebuttal redoes, practice debates, mini debates, debating your instructors, and drills that don’t involve just reading are all integrated. Every time we learn a new concept, we’ll practice it. Unlike other workshops, we rarely, if ever, give byes for practice debates, and we do redo’s approximately every other day – more than any other camp in the country.
A Smaller Environment – It’s easy to get lost when there are 300 kids at the camp. At the RKS we cultivate a more intimate environment where everyone works with everyone. That means you’ll get coveted one-on-one time with instructors that would be hard to get elsewhere. We maintain at least a 1 to 10 faculty-to-student ratio, so students get the attention they need.
A Big Tent Approach - When the year starts, debaters will have to face opponents who use different styles of arguments. We know from experience at Wake Forest that the summer is the best time to learn the widest possible variety of arguments. If you only debate one style of argument over the summer, you will be forced to learn in the middle of a debate when you’re in the season. Instead, come to the RKS and practice debating all styles. Not everyone wants to be a “flex” debater but testing your mettle against every possible style will make sure that you are equipped to succeed.
The Demo Debates and Lectures are Dope – Our faculty know a whole lot of things. Expect lectures on various topics like Biopolitics, Marxism, Racial Capitalism, Black Feminism, Death Ks, Academy K, Settler Colonialism, Orientalism, Moten, Deleuze, Baudrillard, Revolutionary Performative Fiat, Performance-Spec, Psychoanalysis, Counter-plan theory, Afro-pessimism, Queer theory, the Art of Petty, PICs, PIKs, PIPs and of course framework. We tailor most of the lectures to the needs and desires of the collective. Want to see a DB vs. Calum showdown, or what it looks like when DSRB and DB come together to be the ultimate team? Come to the RKS.
Think Hard, Talk Fast (or don’t that’s cool too) – At the RKS we work hard, and we play hard. Camp doesn’t have to be grueling, confusing or isolating to be cool. Our students work hard for us because we work hard for them. We cut really good cards, and we craft really excellent arguments. That is to say, we get it done. We will also shuttle you to the mall, have a water balloon fight, or just have chill time.
The RKS Experience – Your mind, heart, and soul will get exercise every day.
Wake Forest is extremely honored to be able to have amazing debate teachers lead the RKS this summer at Wake Forest. We can think of no group of people who have a longer or more successful track-record of critical and plan-based debate pedagogy. Together the accolades both from teams they have coached and from the debaters they coached who turned out to be national champions are too many to be counted.
So many debates are won with a combination of great evidence, great execution, and great individual theorizing by the debaters. Students will initially spend the bulk of their time engaging and discussing critical readings with these phenomenal teachers. A heavy emphasis will be on reading and understanding theory. The students here will have great cards, but the real work is done in working with the instructors.
This system works for us because it’s already how a lot of us think about teaching and coaching. Some of us call it the “hive mind.” The hive mind is what happens when people with different kinds of expertise collaborate to make the most devasting and specific strategy possible.
If you want a customizable yet collective experience where you continually test and perfect strategy, then this is the camp for you. Send us your students who are different in every kind of way. We want to build a place where they can grow and feel comfortable and happy while their doing it. Students of all styles and debate formats are welcome.