
About ANA
The Argumentation Network of the Americas
The Argumentation Network of the Americas aims to unite, sustain, and grow the community of argumentation scholars across the Americas.
Our Story
ANA began when two recent PhD graduates, faced with finding their place in the North American job market, recognized the need for organized and sustained support.
ANA's mission is to provide a network to connect the interdisciplinary argumentation studies community across North, Central, and South America with a specific aim to support students and early career researchers. This will be done through a periodic major conference, along with smaller regional events taking place more regularly. The main priority of the ANA executive is to make connections across the continents in efforts to support the the growth and development of researchers in the field.
Meet The Executive

Michael Baumtrog - (Chair) Regional Director North
baumtrog@ryerson.ca

Fábio Shecaira
Regional Director - South
fabioperin@direito.ufrj.br

Sarah T. Partlow Lefevre
(Interim) Regional Director - North
arahpartlowlefev@isu.edu

Constanza Ihnen
Regional Director - South
cihnen@derecho.uchile.cl
Department of Law and Business - Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.
Michael earned Undergraduate and Masters degrees in Philosophy from the University of Windsor. He earned his PhD from the New University of Lisbon. He is interested in the use of reasoning and argumentation for producing ethically sound decisions.
Faculty of Law - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Fábio earned an Undergraduate degree in Law and a Masters degree in philosophy, both from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He earned his PhD from McMaster University. He is interested in the logical and rhetorical aspects of legal and political argumentation.
Department of Communication, Media, and Persuasion. Idaho State University, USA.
Sarah earned her Ph.D., from the University of Kansas in Communication and Rhetorical Studies. She is a Professor in the Department of Communication, Media, and Persuasion at Idaho State University where she has been the Director of Debate since 2001. She is interested in the intersection between argumentation and conspiracy theories, argumentation theory, presidential debates, debates about gun control, second wave feminism, and contemporary controversies in the public sphere. Sarah is the Director of the National Debate Tournament. She also serves on the board of the Women’s Debate Institute and Kind Community Inc. in Pocatello. As part of her role for KIND, Sarah promotes respectful dialogue and debate in her local community.
Faculty of Law – University of Chile, Chile.
Constanza has an undergraduate degree in Hispanic and Latin American Literature and Linguistics from the Catholic University of Chile. She earned her Master’s and PhD in Rhetoric, Argumentation and Philosophy of Language from the University of Amsterdam. She is currently interested in lawmaking and constitution-making discussion procedures and argumentation, legal arguments (about evidence in particular), and the descriptive and normative meaning of the term "force" when applied to arguments.

Hugo Mota
Graduate Rep. - South
Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas - University of Oslo, Norway.
Hugo earned an Undergraduate and Masters degrees in Philosophy from the Federal University of Pernambuco. He currently is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Oslo. His research is on social epistemology, specifically in the relation between deep disagreements, argumentation, and structural oppression.

Harry Weger -
Senior Advisor
University of Central Florida

Daniel Mejía S
Graduate Rep. - North
Department of Philosophy - University of Windsor, Canada.
Daniel earned an Undergraduate degree in philosophy from Universidad de Antioquia and a Masters degree in Humanistic Studies from Universidad EAFIT. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Argumentation Studies at the University of Windsor. There he is part of the political argument research cluster and is doing research on extremism and argumentation under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Tindale.

Nick J. Sciullo
Communications Officer
Department of Art, Communications & Theatre - Texas A&M University, United States
Nick earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Richmond with majors in History and Urban Practice and Policy and a minor in Rhetoric and Communication Studies. He earned his J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law and his PhD in Communication from Georgia State University. He is interested in race and argument, intercollegiate debate, legal argument, and political argument.

TBA -
Secretary
