Editor's introduction.

• Author: Lake, Randall A.

In 1976, at the initiative of David Zarefsky, then chair of the Speech Communication Association's Forensics Division, a committee was formed to investigate the possibility of a summer conference on argumentation studies. Under his leadership, as well as the leadership of subsequent chairs, including Donn Parson, J. Robert Cox, and David Thomas, planning continued apace. In 1978, the University of Utah was selected as the host institution, and the American Forensic Association, led by its president, Gerald Sanders, joined the effort as a co-sponsor. In July, 1979, the SCA/AFA Summer Conference on Argumentation convened at Rustler Lodge in Alta, Utah.

Ambitions were modest: This was billed as "the" summer conference, not "the first" summer conference. Nonetheless, it's hard to keep a good idea down. A second conference was held in 1981. Then came another ... and another ... and another ... Before long, the Alta conference had become a biennial rite of summer. Indeed, as I write, planning is well underway for the fifteenth conference, to be held August 2-5, 2007, still at Rustler Lodge.

Over these past 28 years, the conference has witnessed many changes: the ambit of argumentation studies has expanded; the concerns of scholars have evolved; the community of scholars has grown. Each incarnation brings new faces, new voices, new ideas. Alta's intimacy and...