Faculty

Vik Keenan (she/hers) has been the Debate Coach at The New School since 2015.  She previously spent a decade as the Director of Policy Debate for CUNY, 7 years as an assistant coach at NYU. and served as the Assistant Director of the New York Coalition of College for Debate. A former New York City public school teacher, she currently works full time as the Assistant Director of Advising & Operations for the Liberal Studies division of NYU. Vik was the 2019 recipient of the Galentine Coaching Award by the Cross-Examination Debate Association, the national governing body of intercollegiate policy debate, recognizing her 20+ years of coaching excellence, program development, community service, and commitment to question of diversity, equity, and inclusion in college debate. She was a founding member of the NYU Policy Debate Team as an undergraduate, and worked in the inaugural programming of the New York Urban Debate League in NYC schools.

Vik has been affiliated with New School Debate for over 20 years, and was a key supporter in the program being housed in the Lang Office of Civic Engagement & Social Justice. As the Debate Coach, she looks to practice argumentation and advocacy skills in support of CESJ goals, and brings the same lens to the pedagogical approach of the Debate Slam! course in the Politics Department. She studied Dramatic Literature,Theater History, and Cinema at NYU's College of Arts & Science as an undergraduate, and attended the MA program in Educational Theater at NYU as well.