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Raft Debate: All-Stars
October 27, 2026, 6:30 p.m.
Sadler Center, Commonwealth Auditorium
Free & Open to the Public
What is the Raft Debate?
What is the Raft Debate?
Described as a "delicate balance of comedy and lecture", the annual Raft Debate features four W&M faculty members from diverse disciplines, stranded on a desolate island with only a one-person life raft for escape to civilization. Which faculty member should survive for the sake of humanity? Based on the volume of applause, the audience chooses the sole survivor as the professors cajole, plead, pontificate, and resort shamelessly to props and costumes.
Faculty participants represent the Arts & Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Natural, Mathematical and Health Sciences. The Devil's Advocate, who argues sarcastically that none of the academic disciplines are worth saving, has on occasion emerged victorious.
Meet the 2026 Raft Debaters!
Social Sciences: Peter Vishton
Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences
Peter M. Vishton, winner of the 2015 Raft Debate, is a psychological scientist interested in how action control influences perceptual and cognitive processes. He is the inventor of the BabyKart, a device that enables 4-month-old infants to drive. He recently published an article suggesting that some plants can count to two. Given his love of arts, humanities and natural sciences, he is reluctant to harshly criticize them in the Raft Debate. That said, he will.
Arts & Humanities: Anne Rasmussen
Professor of Music/Ethnomusicology, Bickers Professor of Middle Eastern Studies
She skis, she hikes, she bikes, she sings and plays music, and she had a previous life as a lounge lizard in Paris. Ethnomusicologist and Bickers Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Anne Rasmussen has ongoing research projects in the U.S., the Arabian Gulf, and especially in Indonesia, the land below the Monsoon Winds. Given her vast previous experience at sea, she is incredulous at being stranded (again) on a deserted island with a passel of adversarial shipmates, but is ready, once again, to defend the humanities!
Natural, Mathematical & Health Sciences: Chuck Bailey
Professor of Geology
Professor Chuck Bailey is a structural geologist and inveterate rabble-rouser. His research takes him from the Desert Southwest to the mountains of Oman. In addition to structural geology, he teaches courses focused on the Earth’s environmental systems, planetary geology, as well as weather and climate. His classes are infamous for their high ‘stoked factor.’ At the 2003 Raft Debate, Chuck carried the day, safely returning from the forsaken island to his day job at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ.
Devil's Advocate: Andrew Fisher
Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, History
Andrew Fisher considers history to be a humanistic discipline, yet he was somehow compelled to represent the social sciences during the 2011 Raft Debate. This time, as the Devil's Advocate, he aims to burn down all the disciplines in a blaze of glory that should disqualify him from further service on all college committees. Raised in Portlandia before it was cool, he specializes in the Indigenous and environmental history of the Pacific Northwest. Someday he hopes to retire to Portland and open a home for recovering hipsters.
Judge/Emcee:Â Trey Mayo
Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies, School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics
Assistant Dean (Ed.D. ’22) oversees graduate studies support and operations in the School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics, managing admissions, academic progress, and all things paperwork. He previously served in a similar capacity in the College of Arts & Sciences at W&M.
While his lifelong dream of being a TV game show host didn't pan out, he found a perfect consolation prize: serving as The Judge of the Raft Debate, moderating four academics who fight for survival after a hypothetical shipwreck. When the spreadsheets are filed away and the robe is hung up, Mayo enjoys nature walks, spending time with his mother and his feline fur-daughter, Chewie, and finding the perfect YouTube clip or meme for the occasion.