The Composition of the WUDC South Africa 2016 Adjudication Core

One of the things that WUDC South Africa 2016 prides itself on is transparency. This commitment is not just something we apply to our organisational plans and finances, but something we take to heart throughout all aspects of our bid. As a result, the adjudication core of WUDC South Africa will be prioritising transparency and meritocracy as central goals in our independent adjudicator selection, our metrics for breaking judges, and our criteria for selecting DCAs.

With these values in mind, and due to an expanding competition, the WUDC South Africa 2016 Adjudication Core will be comprised of seven members. Our team will be comprised of our two Co-CAs, Pam Cohn (IONA) and Syed Saddiq (Asia), our DCA Dessislava Kirova (Continental Europe), and four additional DCAs will be regionally representative, and will be selected by an open application and feedback process.
Our CA Team will reflect our commitment to inclusiveness and quality of judging. As a result, in addition to our focus on regional representation, we will strive to provide a team that is gender-balanced, and contains a representative from each language category.

Detailed below are short descriptions of what we are looking for (beyond the merit criteria) in each of our four DCAs we will be appointing by open application process.

DCA “Americas”

We will be appointing one DCA from the “Americas” region. Our Americas DCA will need to have in-depth knowledge of the domestic debating styles used throughout the region. The Americas have been under-represented in WUDC adjudication pools in recent years, and we believe that much of this is due to a lack of understanding of regional talent due to varied domestic debating styles.

Regardless of where they originate from within the region, our Americas DCA must commit to engaging with the entirety of the region, and to have a presence at major competitions throughout, including Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, etc. This is important to understanding and cultivating judging talent from all corners of the region.

DCA “Asia”

We will be appointing one DCA from the “Asia” region. Whilst we encourage applications from all interested candidates, we will be prioritising applicants with an EFL background.

DCA “Oceania”

We will be appointing one DCA from the “Oceania” region. This DCA will need to have an in-depth knowledge of the Oceania circuit, and have a strong commitment to spreading debating within their region.

DCA “Open”

The final member of our team will be an “Open” category DCA, who has a somewhat unique character compared to past WUDC DCAs. As part of our dedication to expanding debating, and our specific focus on cultivating and standardizing adjudication across the world, this DCA will need to have both an extensive debating and judging CV, as well as a demonstrated track-record and commitment to debate education.

Whilst we will accept applications from all interested candidates for this slot, we would like to encourage applicants from the Africa and Middle East and IONA regions.