Advancing Liberal Arts Inquiry in Contested Times
A Three-Day Conference: April 18-20, 2023
Incidents involving free expression on campus continue to rile campus communities, frequently in liberal arts settings. Flare-ups over speech and respect have a long afterlife. They raise questions about how best to educate students to lead in a divided society.
These incidents pit against each other pedagogical perspectives about whether students learn best in contexts where discussion of ideas is completely unfettered, or whether some topics and ideas make students feel under attack and inhibit opportunities for learning.
How do we balance the needs of protecting our students from harmful and incendiary views and helping them confront difficult and often divisive material? How do we model respectful dialogue in the interest of intellectual inquiry?
The College of the Holy Cross is convening a cohort of 30 scholars, administrators and leaders, representing a range of perspectives, disciplines and roles on campus, to clarify the challenges and imagine pedagogical responses in the classroom and across campus. This conference will help us identify the distinctive tensions facing private, liberal arts educational contexts and how best to address them in order to promote a healthy campus climate and well-educated citizenry.
The conference will be held in two parts: invited participants will begin their work at our off-campus retreat space, the Joyce Contemplative Center, with an introductory simulation and the first day of sessions. Then, they will regroup on campus for a second day of sessions open to the Holy Cross community. We look forward to an engaged and robust audience of students, faculty and staff in Rehm Library on April 20.
This conference is made possible with the generous support of the John and Laura Broderick Family Foundation.
VIEW THE SCHEDULE BELOW
Like our home institutions, we will create a living/learning environment that differs somewhat from a traditional conference. Participants will stay at Holy Cross’s Joyce Contemplative Center, where a slower, more reflective pace will encourage conciliation and collaboration. During this time, we will talk together, dine together, and work together to address our common mission. These sessions will be limited to invited participants and registered Holy Cross faculty.
TUESDAY, APRIL 18: WELCOME
5:00 PM: Dinner
6:30 PM: Campus Speech Controversy Simulation
This team-based simulation is designed to encourage practical engagement and to introduce participants to one another in a collegial setting.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19: NAMING THE TENSIONS
8:00 AM: Breakfast
9:00-10:15 AM: Session 1: Problems on Campus
What do you see as the core tensions on your campus, and in the liberal arts more broadly?
- PAUL A. IRISH, associate dean of students, College of the Holy Cross
- AMNA KHALID, associate professor of history, Carleton College
- KATHRYN L. LYNCH, professor of English, Wellesley College
- LUCAS SWAINE, professor of government, Dartmouth College
- Moderator: MARCELLA RUNELL HALL, vice president of student life and dean of students, Mount Holyoke College
10:45 AM-12:00 PM: Session 2: Solutions on Campus
What are some things going right on college campuses these days?
- JEFFREY AARON SNYDER, associate professor of educational studies, Carleton College
- AMBER WICHOWSKY, professor of political science, Marquette University
- Moderator: ELLEN E. PERRY, professor of classics and Monsignor Edward G. Murray Professor of the Arts and Humanities, College of the Holy Cross
12:00-1:00 PM: Lunch
1:00-2:15 PM: Session 3: Reflections on Common Ground
- MUSA AL-GHARBI, assistant professor of communication and journalism, Stony Brook University
- JACQUELINE PFEFFER MERRILL, director of the Campus Free Expression Project, Bipartisan Policy Center
- MARCELLA RUNELL HALL, vice president of student life and dean of students, Mount Holyoke College
- Moderator: ELLIOTT VISCONSI '95, recently named provost, College of the Holy Cross, currently associate provost and chief academic digital officer, University of Notre Dame
3:00-4:30 PM: Session 4: Presidents Reflect: What Have You Learned?
What do you see as the core tensions on your campus, and in the liberal arts more broadly?
- MICHAEL S. ROTH, president, Wesleyan University
- VINCENT D. ROUGEAU, president, College of the Holy Cross
- SANFORD J. UNGAR, former president, Goucher College, and inaugural director of the Free Speech Project, Georgetown University
- Moderator: MICHELE C. MURRAY, senior vice president for student development and mission and dean of students, College of the Holy Cross
Dinner/Reception to follow
The conference moves to Holy Cross’s main campus for a more structured conversation. On this day, panelists will focus on three contested areas: teaching balance and respect, the role of speech and speakers in academic life, and strategies for engaging in difficult conversations.
The campus community is welcome to attend these panel discussions in Rehm Library.
THURSDAY, APRIL 20: ADDRESSING THE TENSIONS
7:30 AM: Breakfast
9:00-10:30 AM: Session 5: Teaching Balance and Respect
With a broad view of the notion of “teaching,” this panel takes into consideration the variety of ways that we teach our students on college campuses. How can we, as educators, intentionally prepare our students to learn in the midst of polarizing times?
- SAMUEL ABRAMS, professor of politics, Sarah Lawrence College
- LYELL ASHER, associate professor of English, Lewis & Clark College
- TSITSI B MASVAWURE, professor of the practice in health studies, College of the Holy Cross
- KARSONYA WISE WHITEHEAD, professor of communication and African American studies, Loyola University Maryland
- Moderator: PAUL A. IRISH, associate dean of students, College of the Holy Cross
10:45 AM-12:00 PM: Session 6: Speech and Speakers
This panel digs into an issue that has roiled a number of campuses: the role of speech by invited speakers, student groups, and other forms of extra-curricular speech. How do we recognize (and define) the value of such speech? How can we, as educators, intentionally prepare ourselves and our students for these controversies?
- LAURIE ANN BRITT-SMITH, director of the Center for Writing, College of the Holy Cross
- DAN CULLEN, professor of philosophy, Rhodes College
- SARAH KLOTZ, assistant professor of English, College of the Holy Cross
- JONATHAN MARKS, professor of politics, Ursinus College
- Moderator: THOMAS M. LANDY, director of the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, College of the Holy Cross
12:30-1:45 PM: Lunch
2:00-3:30 PM: Session 7: Discussing Difference
This panel considers the campus environment as a whole, and the ways that we, as educators, can intentionally guide our students through the challenges of engaging in dialogue across difference.
- ROBERT G. BOATRIGHT, professor of political science, Clark University
- LEILA BRAMMER, inaugural director of the Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse, University of Chicago
- ALEXANDER BROWMAN, assistant professor of psychology, College of the Holy Cross
- Moderator: KATHRYN L. LYNCH, professor of English, Wellesley College
4:00-5:30 PM: Session 8: Closing Reflections
The goal of this panel is to both synthesize and close the conference, highlighting what we have accomplished and what work is left to do.
- MICHELLE N. DEUTCHMAN, executive director, National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, University of California
- MICHELE C. MURRAY, senior vice president for student development and mission and dean of students, College of the Holy Cross
- CAROL A. SUMNER, vice president of the Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Texas Tech University
- SANFORD J. UNGAR, inaugural director of the Free Speech Project, Georgetown University
- Moderator: DAN CULLEN, professor of philosophy, Rhodes College
Reception/Dinner to follow