Anand Rao, associate professor of communication and director of the speaking intensive program, will be a presenter next week in Shanghai, China, at a debate training workshop for high school English teachers.

The “Training Workshop on the Harvard Debate-National Forensic League Curriculum” will be held from Wednesday, May 23 through Monday, May 28. Rao will be one of four presenters at the workshop, along with Stefan Bauschard (Harvard Debate), Adam Jacobi (National Forensic League), and Ryan Galloway (Samford University). The workshop will be attended by 100 English teachers from 50 of the top magnet high schools across China.

The workshop is sponsored by two government agencies, “The Society of Cultivating Innovators” and “Innovation Method Society,” which are supervised by the Ministries of Education and Technology. The agencies are considered the highest ranking non-profits in China organized by the central government. Harvard Debate and the National Forensic League, the leading organizations for high school debate in the United States, are working with the Chinese agencies to develop a high school debate program for the top students across the country. The workshop is the first presentation of a debate curriculum that is in development by Harvard Debate and the National Forensic League for use in Chinese high schools this coming fall.

Anand Rao, associate professor of communication and director of the speaking intensive program, will direct a summer workshop on public speaking and argumentation in Boston, Mass. The workshop for high school students is sponsored by Harvard Debate Council, the officially-recognized debate program at Harvard. The workshop will be held on the Harvard campus from July 15 through 27, and students will work on presentation skills for both live and online audiences. More information about the workshop can be found on the Harvard Debate Council website: https://www.hdcworkshops.org/camps/session/9.