April 2, 2024
It’s no secret that many people feel a rising sense of conflict in their communities these days. According to a 2023 poll conducted by market research and data analytics firm YouGov, two-thirds of Americans believe the nation is more divided than usual.
College campuses haven’t escaped that sense of discord — yet their unique environment of academic exchange has the potential to create platforms for productive and meaningful discussion amid differences. That’s because universities are, by their very nature, collaborative places. They bring together people from distinct backgrounds, identities, faith systems and political views who all share the pursuit of knowledge as a common goal.
At Pitt, the academic community aims to achieve understanding through shared differences of perspective. The Year of Discourse and Dialogue, which unfolded over the 2023-24 academic year, helped to foster this goal and lay the foundation for ongoing work.
Led by the Office of the Provost, the Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, the initiative established campus programming and provided grant funding to support interdisciplinary projects working to ensure the University is a place where everyone can “challenge ideas, seek truth, create new knowledge and examine their biases and assumptions.”
Among the grant recipients were faculty members Abdesalam Soudi, a teaching associate professor of linguistics in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and Ann Sinsheimer, a professor of legal writing and associate dean for equity and inclusive excellence in the School of Law. Soudi led a project that examined the roles compassion and language can play in civil discourse and the humanities in particular. Sinsheimer, meanwhile, designed a workshop on a peer-to-peer pilot program meant to encourage a deeper understanding of rights of expression.
The professors recently sat down with Clyde Wilson Pickett, Pitt’s vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and co-chair of the Year of Discourse and Dialogue committee. They discussed the role of open and courteous exchange of ideas on college campuses — and how to channel that same spirit into your next disagreement, whether it occurs in an internet comment section or around the family dinner table.
Read more: Pittwire