Contact Us
Project on Civic Dialogue
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States
Fall 2024 Programming:
- Tuesday, September 3rd: Disagree with a Professor Event in DMTI 111
- Tuesday, September 10th: Social Capitol Introductory Meeting in Kerwin 301
- Tuesday, September 27th: Disagree with the Constitution in Kerwin 301
- Friday, September 27th: Speaker Event with Jeremy Young, Director of the Freedom to Learn program at PEN America in MacDowell Formal Lounge
Past Events
2024:
- Disagree with a Policy: Responses to AU's then-newly-instituted policy limiting student expression.
- PCD x AUSG President Santos: What does your ideal university as a space for dialogue and disagreement look like? A part of the "A(spirational)U series, allowing students to utilize dialogue to envision what AU can be.
2023:
- Can We Talk? Defining, Practicing, and Protecting Dialogue in Higher Education: A two-day series of facilitated online conversations explores the challenges of fostering open and inclusive communication in college classrooms and campuses and lays the foundation for future collaboration on pedagogy, research, and programming.
- "Disagree Like Your Life Depended on It": A talk on the Judge Duncan Stanford Law Protest with David Muraskin, Food Project Litigation Director, Public Justice, and Ian Millhiser, Senior Correspondent, Vox.
- Disagree with a Professor Series:
- Professor Sasha O'Connell and lawful access/"going dark"
- Professor Steven Taylor and urban politics
- Professor Korneliya Bachiyska and ethical conflict
- Professor Kevin Boyle and juvenile sentencing/justice
- Professor Amaarah Decuir and Teach for America
- Professor Andrew Karron and the Major Questions Doctrine
- Navigating Conflict on Campus in October 2023: Devising strategies to address communication roadblacks unique to Israel and Palestine.
- Գ:A facilitated dialogue focused on the trials and tribulations of the summer's competing blockbuster hits.
- School Curriculum Censorship: A group discussion on the rising levels of censorship in K-12 schools.
- Disagree with your Boss: A PCD and Graduate Leadership Council town hall with Professor Nate Favero.
- What Makes A Youth Leader?: A drop-in conversation with student Olivia Gauvin.
- The Search for a New President with SPA UGC: A cafe dialogue to discuss what students are looking for from the next AU president.
- Disagree with your Family: How can we communicate and have constructive dialogue with our family during the holidays?
2022:
- What's Going on with Covid-19?: Join peer facilitators for a discussion on the state of the pandemic and how it affects the AU and D.C. communities.
- Disagree with Professor Char Mollison: The Role of Dissent in Nonprofits: When Staff Openly Disagree with the Boss
- Peer Discussion Series:
- Patriotism, Dissent, and Power: What is patriotism? How do you express it? Students will explore the meanings of and nexuses between patriotism, dissent, and power in the U.S.
- Apology 101: Students will examine why people apologize, what constitutes a genuine apology, and what people need to do to truly make up for their past mistakes.
- Paradox of Tolerance: The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually destroyed by the intolerant. Students will explore the concept of tolerance with PCD peer facilitators.
- Do Your Professor's Politics Matter?: In an age where political division is at an all time high and political debates are increasingly hostile, the roles of educators and academia are unique. Students will explore what the role of their professors is and if they should be apolitical vessels of knowledge.
- Thanksgiving—Reconciling Tradition and Tragedy: For many, Thanksgiving has been taught as a celebrated of unity between settlers and Native Americans. But the bloody history of the period and continued violence against Native peoples has caused many to rethink how and if Thanksgiving is worth celebrating.
2021:
- Peer Facilitated Discussions:
- Mental Illness Discourse: Students will discuss if "crazy talk" affects community members with mental health disabilities and if so, how?
- Marketplace of Ideas: Students will discuss how institutions dedicated to expanding knowledge deal with the junk in our marketplace of ideas.
- Anger, Profanity and Forbidden Words: Students will discuss broad ideas surrounding moral coercion and delve into narrower areas such as cancel culture.
2020:
- Communication and Community in the Time of Social Distancing:
- Inspired Higher Education Across Distance, with Prof. Kevin Gannon
- Pride During the Covid-19 Era, with Charlotte Cloymer
- Activism and Expression Across Distance, with Daniel Alejandro Leon-Davis
- Parenting, Way Up Close, with Katherin Reynolds Lewis
- Building Faith Remotely, with Rabbi Ruti Regan and Rev. Dr. Laura Norvell, Wesley Theological Seminary
- Reflections on Fairness with PCD Student Leaders: In this conversation, students will continue to reflect upon how their political, personal, spiritual, or other values and identities inform their perceptions of education and live in the COVID-19 crisis. They will engage in perspective taking and brainstorm effective ways to use their voices in support of equity and accessibility in this challenging time.
- Frustration and Fairness in the Covid-19 Era with Professor Lara Schwartz: In this conversation, students will continue to reflect upon how their political, personal, spiritual, or other values and identities inform their perceptions of education and live in the COVID-19 crisis. They will engage in perspective taking and brainstorm effective ways to use their voices in support of equity and accessibility in this challenging time.
- Free Speech, Student Activism, and Racial Justice—An ACLU Lawyer's Perspective: Join Emerson Sykes, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and fellow at the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, for a discussion about racial justice and student activism. Refreshments will be provided.
2019:
- What's With AU?: Join us in a panel discussion as we break down the mold of the typical AU student and the pressures of having constant internships and multiple leadership positions. This panel provides AU community members with an opportunity to better understand student life at AU. Why is the typical AU student under these pressures? Who created these pressures? AU faculty and staff will be able to offer observations of student behavior and mindset over many generations or at different universities which they have taught at.
Political Discourse and the American Jewish Identity
November 18, 2019 | 7:00PM | Hughes Formal
This discussion will focus on the use of Jews and the issue of anti-Semitism as a political hacky sack by the American political right and left. A four-person panel of expert Jewish speakers will discuss some of these difficult issues on stage before opening things up to questions from the audience. Attendees will be able to consider the tension between marginalization and privilege within the American Jewish community.
The Picture of Dorian Gray Talkback
November 9, 2019 | 3:00PM | Katzen 151
This talkback will take place among the will focus on the legacy of problematic authors and how to properly perform their work. Focusing around the example of Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Gray, we will explore how to separate, or not separate, authors and their writing. To participate in this event, you must have attended the play.
Paradox of Tolerance
October 23, 2019 | 11:30AM | Hughes Formal Lounge
The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. This panel will discuss whether and to what extent religious tolerance warrants limits on laws, such as antidiscrimination laws, designed to ensure tolerance for, access by, and participation in society for members of the protected classes.
A Conversation with Louis Michael Seidman: Can Free Speech Be Progressive?
April 3, 2019 | 2:30PM | Hughes Formal Lounge
Louis Michael Seidman is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown Law. Seidman spoke about his work, "Can Free Speech Be Progressive?," outlining his arguments and discussing the constitutionalization of free speech and the tension between property and speech.
The Spring 2019 Global Education Forum: "Hate Comes to Campus"
March 28, 2019 | 2:30PM | SVB 6th Floor
Join Shannon Gilreath, Ibram X. Kendi, and Lara Schwartz for a panel discussion on free speech and the future of the campus community.
Conviction and Authenticity in Political Communication: A Conversation with Tyler Lewis
March 6, 2019 | 11:30AM | MGC 200
Tyler Lewis is the Director of Coalition Communications and Research at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Lewis spoke about political communication, the importance of moral clarity and repetition, and the interplay between passion and anger.
Activism, Discourse, and Identity with “The Monopoly Man.”
November 1, 2018
Ian Madrigal (formerly Amanda Werner), an attorney and consumer advocate best known as “The Monopoly Man,” discussed the interplay of identity and discourse and how they use their voice and platform for activism.
Free Speech Isn't Free: A Conversation with Garrett Epps
October 17, 2018
Garrett Epps is a law professor at the University of Baltimore and a contributing editor for The Atlantic. Epps spoke about the complexity of free speech and the unequal burden it can present.
Project on Civil Discourse Guest Lecturer Examines First Amendment
Diversity of Opinion and Campus Speech: A Conversation with Josh Blackman
September 27, 2018
Josh Blackman is a law professor at the South Texas College of Law and a Cato Institute Adjunct Scholar. Blackman spoke about the role that free speech plays in education and his own experience with being protested.