Emory’s Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation and Dialogue celebrates 75th anniversary

By John Baker Brown Jr. Sept. 4, 2025

Since Emory’s founding in 1836, open and rigorous debate has been part of student life thanks to early student literary societies. But it wasn’t until 1950 that the university’s debate program acquired the name Barkley Forum. That year, U.S. Vice President Alben W. Barkley, a graduate of Emory debate, gave students permission to name the debate society after him.

Alben W. Barkley, former Emory student and U.S. Vice President

“While debate and dialogue have nearly two centuries of history and tradition at Emory that reflect the university’s mission to apply knowledge in the service of humanity, we are delighted to celebrate 75 years of the Barkley Forum in its current form,” says Mikaela Malsin, forum director and program alumna.

Over the years, Barkley Forum, a part of Emory Campus Life, has established itself as one of the nation’s top competitive debate programs. It is a place where student-debaters embrace the program’s deeply embedded values of critical thinking, civic engagement and communication across differences.

Among many honors earned in competitive debate, the program has won more than 30 national championships, including three National Debate Tournaments, and produced three two-person teams that received the prestigious Copeland Award.

The winning tradition continues. This past year, Barkley Forum student-debaters won the JW Patterson Debates at the University of Kentucky for the first time ever and had a tandem ranked second in the nation at the end of the regular season.

More than a top competitive debate program

“As successful as Barkley Forum has been in the field of competitive debate, there is much more to the program,” says Malsin, the 2025 recipient of the Ross K. Smith National Coach of the Year Award. “Our community outreach and campus engagement activities support the holistic development of students and help them become leaders prepared to help change the world for the better.”

Barkley Forum has been doing just that in the field of college debate nationwide. In the 1960s and 1970s, the program became a pacesetter in expanding the participation of women and people of color in competitive college debate.

In 1985, Barkley Forum partnered with Atlanta Public Schools to found the Atlanta Urban Debate League, committed to providing quality debate education programs, services and opportunities to students, educators and community members to bring debate opportunities to under-resourced areas.

In 2017, the program expanded its mission — and its name, becoming the Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation and Dialogue. Under the new name, the program began facilitating broader discussions of difficult topics on campus and around metro Atlanta. The Emory Conversation Project is a result of this expansion, a facilitator-training program that provides safe spaces for structured, face-to-face dialogue seeking to bridge differences and connect communities.

Throughout the history of Barkley Forum, student-debaters have gone on to make significant contributions in a variety of professions, including medicine, science, politics, business, law, education and technology, ultimately improving lives around the globe.

The group’s mission is alive and well today, according to Malsin.

“I like to think that the student-debaters, coaches and staff of 1950 would be proud of us today as Barkley Forum celebrates its past contributions to society and looks forward to another 75 years of serving humanity — as our motto states — by ‘changing the world one word at a time.’”

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More than a top competitive debate program

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