ANU Debating

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Coming soon.... 🤩🤩

EASTERS CONTINGENT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

So excited to announce our full contingent for the upcoming Sydney Easters in a couple of weeks!!

*CAP Members* : Ally Pitt (CA), Dhruv Hariharan (DCA)

ANU Lyneham: Benny Olschewski, Claudia McDougall, Isabel Adams
ANU Downer: Felix Greene, Sophie Regan, Nevan Serasundera
ANU Denman Prospect: Gabriel Cheng, Connor Russo, Sidney Zhang
ANU Molonglo Valley: Gypsy Polacheck, Dang Pham, Lukas Willinge
ANU Yarralumla: Ahnu Guan, Lauren Buckle, Min Park
ANU Weston Creek: Kelly Zhu, Yao Xiao, Leonid Burshtein
ANU Whitlam: Sam Gorrie (CC), Lavanya Singhal, Alice Liberman
ANU Lyons: Daniel Schafer, Miriam Stubbs-Goulston, Dana Moas
ANU Watson: Farhan Isa, Sebastian Singh, Sofia Malik

Judges:
Hamish Fragiacomo
Paola Ion
Glenn Zhu
Quinn McKissack
Sophie Nham
Nhu Y Hoang
Emily Ezaki-Swain
Kai Xia Ma

We're thrilled to be back in Sydney for another Easters (:

Looking to get involved with ANU Debating this semester? Here’s how!

Membership Form: https://bit.ly/anudebating-membership-form-2026

BBQ Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/930033449482454

Internals Week 1 Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1967219307226786

!! ANU DEBATING IS MORE BACK THAN EVER FOR 2026 !!

Welcome/ Welcome back to ANU Debating!

The ANU Debating Society is super excited to welcome all new and returning members for 2026! During Semester 1 we have a many events planned including weekly internal debates (featuring free dinner), fun social catch-ups, mini competitions hosted in Canberra, and participation in interstate and international tournaments. Attending these events is a great way to meet new people and have a lot of fun! If you sign up, you will also get our weekly newsletter to keep you up-to-date with all the important info each week!

Membership is now available! It costs $20 for the year with payment details in the form below. Membership allows you to attend our events and represent ANU at tournaments. Membership Form: https://bit.ly/anudebating-membership-form-2026

If you're interested in getting involved, our events early in the year include:

🌟 Wednesday 18th February - ANU Debating @ ANUSA Market Day
- Come find us at ANUSA’s Market Day: say hi, ask us anything, and sign up for membership!

🌟Sunday 22nd February - Welcome BBQ!
- We'll be having a chill BBQ at Fellows Oval on the Sunday after O-Week to give new and returning members a chance to get to know each other and find out more about the society. Please click ‘going’ on the event so we know what numbers to cater for, we'll have plenty of vegetarian options & just DM us with any other dietaries!
FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/930033449482454

🌟Every Tuesday at 6pm - Internals
- Every Tuesday at 6pm we host Internals, which comes with free dinner, a training session and a practice debate! Once you sign up as a member (above), you're welcome to come along to as many or as few internals as you'd like.

🌟Tuesday 24th February - First Internals
- Our first Internals for the year will have free dinner, an introduction to uni debating, plus a demonstration debate featuring some of ANU’s most experienced debaters!
- Join us in Marie Reay 2.02 at 6pm. Fill out the registration form in the FB event so we can cater for everyone!
FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1967219307226786

🌟 Trials for the Australian Championships (Easters) - 14-15 March
- ANU will be sending 8 teams and 7 adjudicators to the Australian Intervarsity Debating Championships - colloquially known as Easters - taking place in Sydney from 6 - 9th April 2026. We will be hosting trials for the ANU contingent to this tournament and more info as it’s available will be posted in this event, shared at internals, and in the newsletter!
FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/4186736858235650

ANU Debating Society 2026 Signup Form Become a member of Canberra's biggest and most active debating society for 2026!! What do you get as a member of ANU Debating? - Weekly presentation and practice debates every Tuesday of the semester - FREE dinner with each Tuesday session - Lots of social events throughout the year - Ability to tri...

🇧🇬 SOFIA WORLDS 2026 REPORT 🦁

🌞 ANU had a fantastic week in Bulgaria, and between eating many plates of shopska salad and contracting tournament flu (hence the incomplete photo 😢💔), we found some time to debate at Sofia WUDC 2026.

⛅ ANU A (Dhruv Hariharan and Ally Pitt) broke 30th and made an octofinal before bowing out in an exceptionally close split decision! Ally ranked =25th, and Dhruv and Gypsy finished in the top hundred speakers in the world!!

🦹 Joel participated in the public speaking aspect of the competition, breaking, and ended up finishing 2nd!

💿 Shout out to our biggest Worlds contingent since before Covid - Niamh, Felix, Sam, Gypsy, Chelsea, and Margot - for being in break contention through the silent rounds! and to Joel, Ethan, and Paola for their excellent judging!

🧣 Huge congratulations to those at the other end of the Murrays Bus: Sydney A for winning the open final, Belgrade C for winning the ESL final, and Belgrade A for winning the EFL final!

🙌 Once again, a massive thanks goes to ANUSA and SEEF funding that helped enable such a big contingent of us to attend in Sofia.

🫶 Thanks for having us and thanks to all the volunteers for their hard work! ANU is excited for more debating in 2026!

🇧🇬 SOFIA WUDC 2026 CONTINGENT ANNOUNCEMENT 🇧🇬

ANU is excited to announce our WUDC contingent representing us next month.

ANU A: Dhruv Hariharan (👑, CC), Ally Pitt
ANU B: Niamh Brazil, Felix Greene
ANU C: Sam Gorrie, Gypsy Polacheck
ANU D: Chelsea March, Margot Harris

Judges: Ethan Zhu, Joel Coburn, Paola Ion

We are very grateful to ANUSA's SEEF program, which is supporting us to attend Worlds this year.

This is our largest Worlds contingent since before the pandemic and we are looking forward to seeing everyone in Sofia!

ANU PPB will be debating in the Open Grand Final of Australs 2025!! The debate is scheduled to start around 1:30 pm AEST (but might be later). We will post a stream link here once it goes up, so stay tuned!

EASTERS WRAP-UP

🦑 ANU is both the champions and runners up of Melbourne Easters!!! An all-ANU final for the first time in at least 20 years (and potentially ever)!! What a fantastic week!

🐙 ANU 2 (Ally Pitt, Felix Greene, Emily Ezaki-Swain) broke 2nd and eventually won the tournament! Ally was the overall best speaker and finals best speaker, Felix was =13th best novice and Emily =17th best novice!

🐬 ANU 1 (Dhruv Hariharan, Dang Pham, Nevan Serasundera) broke 4th and became the tournament’s runners up! Dhruv was 6th best speaker and Dang and Nevan were =20th best novices!

🦭 ANU Lyneham (Niamh Brazil, Daniel Schafer, Quinn McKissack) broke 12th before bowing out of the octos in a split. Niamh was also =3rd best speaker!

🐠 ANU 3 (Neil Lu, Ethan Zhu, Chelsea March) ranked 17th but were ineligible to cap in!

🐋 A special shout out too to ANU Yarralumla (Hamish Fragiacomo, Molly Hoogland, Kai Xia Ma), who finished the tournament on four wins and missed the break on speaks!

🦀 Sam Gorrie broke as a judge and chaired a quarterfinal!

🐡 Gypsy Polacheck was a DCA!

🦈 A ginormous thank you to everyone involved in the tournament, including the CA, tab and equity teams and volunteers! A special thank you though to Elanor and Xav for their fantastic work convening! We had an incredible time and are so so so hyped for Australs!

✨ EASTERS GRAND FINAL ✨

Tune into livestream on this page at 7.30pm to see ANU 1 and ANU 2 face off in the Easters Grand Final!!!

We’re are market day!!!! Come say hi and learn how you can get involved in 2025.

We’re located on the lawns between Uni Ave and the JG Crawford building ✨✨

GET INVOLVED IN ANU DEBATING IN 2025!!! 🤩🤩

The ANU Debating Society is super excited to welcome all new and returning members for 2025! During semester 1 we have a many events planned including weekly internal debates (featuring free dinner), fun social catch-ups, competitions hosted in Canberra, and participation in interstate and international tournaments. Attending these events is a great way to meet new people and have a lot of fun!

Membership is now available! It costs $20 for the year with payment details in the form below. Membership allows you to attend our events and represent ANU at tournaments. Sign up here:
https://forms.gle/a63xaEaav9EuKjxu8

If you're interested in getting involved, our events early in the year include:

🌟Wednesday 12th February - ANU Debating Market Day Stall🌟

Come say hi, ask us anything, and sign up for membership during Market Day!

🌟Sunday 16th February - Welcome BBQ!🌟
https://fb.me/e/2KWrA7J0f

We'll be having a chill BBQ at Fellows Oval on the Sunday after O-Week to give new and returning members a chance to get to know each other and find out about the society.

🌟Every Tuesday at 6pm - Internals🌟
https://fb.me/e/2OY26MeFb

Every Tuesday at 6pm we host internals, which comes with free dinner, a training session and a practice debate! Once you sign up as a member you're welcome to come along to as many or as few internals as you'd like. Our first internals will be on the 18th of February in Hancock West.

🌟First Year Coffee Catch-Up🌟
https://forms.gle/6bWapH6wpQgrAsRG8

All first time members of the ANU debating society are invited to come have a coffee at Lab on Wednesday 5th of March 11am. This is a great chance to get to know other members of the society and learn more about the opportunities available throughout the year ☕️

ANU Debating Society 2025 Signup Form Join Canberra's biggest and most active debating society for 2025!! What do you get as a member of ANU Debating? - Weekly debates every Tuesday of the semester with fellow debaters - FREE dinner each Tuesday - Lots of social events throughout the year - Ability to trial for and attend intervarsity c...