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Abstract
Argumentation skills are often touted as archetypal tools of democratic empowerment, yet theorization of ways to use such tools in activist projects outside of tournament contest rounds is rare. As a result, the emancipatory telos anchoring academic policy debate tends to gallop ahead of practical efforts to build empowerment through the debate medium. This essay explores the promises and pitfalls of primary research, public debate, debate outreach, and public advocacy as specific modes of debate activism designed to cultivate argumentative agency and bring argumentation skills to bear in wider spheres of public deliberation beyond the academy.
