{"id":105110,"date":"2017-01-06T13:10:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T18:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=105110"},"modified":"2017-11-03T14:27:17","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T18:27:17","slug":"trust-and-respect-propels-bates-team-to-finals-of-world-universities-debate-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2017\/01\/06\/trust-and-respect-propels-bates-team-to-finals-of-world-universities-debate-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust and respect propels Bates to finals of World Universities Debate Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

You hear it whenever world-class teammates \u2014 think Cousy and Russell, Brady and Edelman, even Babilonia and Gardner \u2014 talk about their success. Invariably, they\u2019ll say it\u2019s all about trust and respect.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly how Bates\u2019 latest world-class debate team, of\u00a0Zo\u00eb Seaman-Grant \u201917 and Matt Davis \u201918, talk about a history-making performance that landed them in the final four of the World Universities Debating Championships in The Hague, Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have enormous respect for each other intellectually. We trust the other person’s ideas,\u201d says Davis, a philosophy major from Chicago. \u201cAnd we’re very good friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

That friendship, says Seaman-Grant, a women and gender studies major from Charleston, S.C., \u201callows us to put so much faith and trust in each other during debates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Debate<\/a>

Debate partners Zo\u00eb Seaman-Grant ’17 and Matt Davis ’18 made it to the finals of the 2017 World Universities Debating Championships in The Hague, Netherlands.<\/p><\/div>\n

Trust and respect, and of course profound intellectual chops and a dizzying knowledge of world affairs, fueled the pair\u2019s run to the finals of the WUDC, which attracted teams from 379 institutions to The Hague Dec. 28 through Jan. 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of Zo\u00eb and Matt,\u201d said President Clayton Spencer. \u201cThey and their teammates are doing an amazing job, continuing Bates\u2019 stellar tradition of success in international debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

About a century after Bates made history by becoming the first U.S. college to debate internationally, Bates is again is looming large in international debate competition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Joining Bates in the finals, held Tuesday, were teams from Oxford University, Yale University, and the University of Sydney, judged the winner. (Among North American colleges not making the finals: Harvard, Duke, Brown, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, McGill, Clemson, Swarthmore, Berkeley, University of Chicago, Brandeis, and Johns Hopkins.)<\/p>\n

The Bates team debated in nine preliminary rounds and five single-elimination rounds. In terms of individual rankings, published after the preliminary rounds, Seaman-Grant was 31st of 756 speakers and Davis 37th.<\/p>\n

\"Zo\u00eb<\/a>

Zo\u00eb Seaman-Grant ’17 is at the lectern, while teammate Matt Davis ’18 takes notes, right, during the final round of the 2017 World Universities Debating Championships in The Hague, Netherlands. (Manuel J. Adams \/ Dutch WUDC 2017)<\/p><\/div>\n

They grappled with motions like:<\/p>\n