The Geneva Debate
The Geneva Debate (previously the Lafayette Society) is the Institute’s premier student initiative which creates an environment for debates on global issues linked to liberal democracy and their application to policy in the 21st century. The Society is reigniting an old Institute tradition this spring semester: a public student-led debate hosted by the Graduate Institute from the Ivan Pictet Auditorium to International Geneva and eventually the world. Learn more about the Geneva Debate here.
Board
Debate Commission Leadership:
Jarrod Suda and Miguel Carricas are the founding members and co-presidents of the Geneva Debate.
Miguel Carricas and Alexandre Maaza design the long-term foundations for the Spring Debate and conduct outreach with Institute professors, faculty, and nearby Geneva institutions.
Kyle de Klerk, Becky Mikova, and Jarrod Suda craft the structure & style of the debate and prepare the debate training curriculum for participants.
Lafayette Ambassador Leadership:
Mathilde Pasta, our creative director, leads our collaboration with the Graduate Press and manages the Geneva Debate's website.
Gugo Tadevosyan plans educational events with faculty & other initiatives and coordinates the spring debate training. He works on our social media campaigns.
Monalee Gibbs engages with leadership at the Albert Hirschman Center for Democracy, a close partner of ours, to bring members in touch with the Centre’s activities, which include the Democracy in Question podcast and the Democracy Reading Group.
My Story
The Geneva Debate is committed to empowering the Graduate Institute’s incredibly talented student body to examine key debates in liberal democracies and their application in the challenging environment that we find ourselves in today following the COVID-19 pandemic. We will engage in the exchange of ideas in the spirit of empathy so that we all may push – not one thinker or one ideology – but each other closer to the truth.
We aspire for the Spring Debate to become the preeminent annual student debate in International Geneva and an annual tradition for students, faculty and the broader Geneva community to critically engage on pressing issues of today and tomorrow. We are excited to invite Institute students to gain from debate training and to form teams for the historic event.