Dialogue Across Difference

Encouraging Civility

Across campus, faculty members are paying close attention to the intellectual climate in their classrooms, determined to break from the rushing tide of polarization. The landscape is daunting. While nobody at Duke is declaring victory, many are happy to take on the challenge.

Encouraging Civility

Fighting Polarization, Groupthink with de Tocqueville, 12 Angry Men

Nasser Hussein, who is teaching a course on the presidential election this semester, says the classroom can be a place to cultivating empathy and patience as virtues and as central to learning.

Fighting Polarization

How One Student Navigates Comfort Zones, Polarized Campus

Justin Greenberg is a Duke sophomore studying public policy and economics -- fields that these days can elicit a great deal of polarizing commentary and disagreement.

How One Student Navigates Comfort Zones

Teaching Civil Discourse: ‘An Ethical, Moral Responsibility’
For Duke, teaching students about respecting other views "is important because the university's core ethical, moral missions to the societies that they function in. "Societies are trusting their future to us. We have an ethical, moral responsibility that goes beyond what we do in our classroom."

Teaching Civil Discourse

At Duke, a Dorm for Big Ideas, Free Expression
Housed in Kilgo Residence Hall on West Campus, this community of about 20 students pushes back against the political and ideological polarization that has overtaken many corners of American higher education, professional workplaces, social media platforms and broader society.

At Duke, a Dorm for Big Ideas, Free Expression