Argumentation and Forensics Division
article type:
Interest Group Awards
2025
Listed here are awards given by the Interest Group to its members. Interests Groups are smaller communities within NCA’s large membership that provide a range of resources including networking opportunities, Annual Convention programming, leadership opportunities, awards, and specialized information dissemination channels, among others.
Read more about this Interest Group.
Top Paper Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Robert Hinck, Edward Hinck, and Shelly Schaefer Hinck, “(In)civility and Presidential Image Making: Politeness Strategies of the 2024 Presidential Debates” |
| 2024 | Robert Hinck; Shelly Schaefer Hinck; Edward A. Hinck, “Do Primary Debates Matter Any More? Assessing the 2024 Republican Primary Debates in the Wake of Trump’s Return to Power” |
| 2023 | Shanara Reid-Brinkley, “Coalition Building in the Belly of the Beast: Black Movement Expansion and the Politics of Allyship in Competitive Policy Debate” |
| 2022 | Matthew Salzano & Damien Pfister, “Caught in the Crossfire: Apple Airdrop and the Digital Infrastructures of Rhetoric and Argumentation” |
| 2021 | John Banister, “Textualism, the Universal Audience, and Inventional Constraints in the Roberts Court’s Voting Rights Jurisprudence” |
| 2020 | Timothy Michaels and Matt Corr, “Debate’s Digital Crossroads: Exploring the Possibilities of Virtual Reality for Competitive Debate” |
| 2013 | Justin Eckstein, “Yellow Rain: The Acoustics of Strategic Maneuvering” |
| 2012 | Susan Sci, “Enacting Reverence: The Role of Affect in the International Freedom Center Controversy” |
Top Student Paper Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Molly Martin, “All over Any: Definitional History and Argument in Constructing Autism Spectrum Disorder” |
| 2024 | Xi Li, “Speech and Debate Across Cultures: A Functional and Historical Comparison of English Forensic Education in China and the United States” |
| 2023 | Carter Reed, “Judicial Apologia in Trump v. Hawaii” |
| 2020 | Cimmiaron Alvarez, “Who to Tell: Communication Privacy Management and Self-Disclosure of Sexual Victimization within the Collegiate Forensics Community” |
| 2016 | Timothy Bill |
| 2015 | Pascal Gagné, “Transmographs: The Semblance of Political Signification in Affect” |
| 2014 | Spencer Harris |
Top Panel Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | No Award Given |
| 2024 | John Joseph Rief, Kenneth Newby, “Debate, Civic Life, and Social Justice: Innovations Toward a Greater Regard for Community” |
| 2023 | “Social Justice Perspectives on Transformative Approaches to Argumentation: How Debate Challenges Limited Freedom of Expression” – Natasha Brown, Robert Green, Shavonne Shorter, Erin Brummett, & Sharmine Herbert |
| 2019 | “Surviving in a Changing Bureaucracy: Strategizing Methods of Re-Legitimizing Speech and Debate Programs” – Chair: Katie Marie Brunner Panelists: Stephen P. Hagan, William Heinze, Deano A. Pape, Erica Lamm Respondent: Larry G. Schnoor |
| 2016 | Trent Webb |
Article of the Year Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Terrell Jake Dionne, “Subordinating Plains Indians through Conservation Law: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Bison Protection Debate” |
| 2021 | Kristopher Copeland & Ant Woodall, “‘This is Who I am and This is What I’m Carrying’: Examining Self-Disclosure in Forensics” |
| 2020 | Nick J. Sciullo, “The Racial Coding of Performance Debate: Race, Difference, and Policy Debate” |
Book of the Year Award
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Tiffany Lewis, Uprising: How Women Used the US West to Win the Right to Vote Michigan State University Press (2021) |
| 2020 | Emma Frances Bloomfield, Communication Strategies for Engaging Climate Skeptics |
Top Paper in Argumentation
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Sarah Dweik, Matthew Parnell, Joseph Provencher, “The Conflict of Callouts: Surviving Competitive Confrontation in Modern Collegiate Debate” |
| 2016 | Sean Kennedy |
| 2015 | Stephen Llano, “The Tournament is a Singularity” |
Top Paper in Forensics
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2016 | Keith Bistodeau |
| 2015 | Kristopher Copeland and Kendrea James, “My College Education Has Come From My Participation in the Forensics Team” |