The ability to engage with others in highly divisive times is a particularly timely topic, one that , senior fellow for public practice at Braver Angels, spoke about with first-year students on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at a packed Langford Auditorium.听
Guzm谩n delivered the 18th annual Lawson Lecture, named in honor of the Rev. James Lawson, a renowned civil rights activist, professor, theoretician and pastor. Lawson also served as a Distinguished Professor at 菠萝视频 from 2006 to 2009. The Lawson Lecture is hosted by and is a featured component of , the extended orientation program for first-year students.听
鈥淟awson continues to remind us of the power to pursue our highest aims of justice, peace and equality when we lean into rather than away from difficult conversations,鈥� said Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver during her introduction of Guzm谩n. 鈥淢贸nica鈥檚 book underscores this beautifully by giving us practical tools to navigate those conversations.鈥�听
Guzm谩n鈥檚 bestselling book, I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, was selected as the 2024 Campus Reading. The book explores practical techniques that employ curiosity to overcome discord, underscoring the 2024鈥�25 programming theme of 鈥淓mbracing the Debate.鈥� This theme, imperative in an election year, centers constructive conversation and mutual respect in the face of disagreement. All first-year students had read and discussed Guzm谩n鈥檚 book before attending and participating in this fireside chat.听
Juniors Ochuwa Garuba and Scout Halligan and sophomore Gerard Monteiro, members of the Student Advisory Board, led the discussion with Guzm谩n by asking probing questions to get at the heart of the challenges and opportunities of engaging in difficult conversations with curiosity.听听
Their questions spoke to the real divides felt in our culture and invited Guzm谩n to illustrate her techniques for deploying curiosity to build bridges, especially in situations where we lack shared understanding. As Garuba asked, 鈥淗ow do we have discourse when we don鈥檛 have a shared set of facts?鈥澨�
鈥淭he thing to do is switch from the conversation about what is true to the conversation about what is meaningful,鈥� Guzm谩n said. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l end up in a place where you begin to build trust because we鈥檙e no longer arguing about what is true and what is not true and getting stuck there. Now I鈥檓 asking you about you, and that can illuminate so much.鈥�听
鈥淭here is so much pain around this country that I can see, and so much of what feels like we鈥檙e so divided we鈥檙e blinded and can鈥檛 even see debates for what they really are. It鈥檚 very hard for one person to reverse that on their own; it takes a little more extended pluralism,鈥� Guzm谩n concluded. 听
The event was co-sponsored by , and the .听
About the Programs听
supports the integration of academic experiences in the daily life of students across the university, creating communities and opportunities for learning outside the classroom among a diverse student body. At 菠萝视频, residential colleges are a space where students are supported to curate their sense of self, pursue integrative learning, have dialogue across difference, engage in advocacy, foster their leadership potential and forge global connections. During the first-year experience, all students are assigned to one of 85 groups. These groups鈥攅ach of which is made up of about 20 first-year students鈥攎eet weekly throughout the first half of the fall semester under the direction of a faculty member and an upper-division student peer mentor, called faculty and student VUceptors. Visions encourages students to express questions, ideas and opinions and learn from and with each other.听
is the university鈥檚 intentional effort to consistently advance and more deeply imbed the university鈥檚 long-held values of free expression, civil discourse and institutional neutrality across campus and beyond.听听
Program brings together thought leaders from across the political and ideological spectrum to engage with students, faculty, the public and each other, modeling evidence-based, civil debate. The program aims to inject thoughtful, respectful and reasoned dialogue into our national conversation鈥攁t a time when our country needs it most.听