Dialogues Across Differences Series

The Clarke Forum partners with the Dialogues Across Differences (DXD) project to enrich campus and community discussions, offer new perspectives, and create opportunities for dialogue about the contemporary issues that affect local and global communities. DXD introduces students to new ideas without the threat of derision or dignitary harm. Dickinson’s multi-pronged approach to teaching and promoting productive dialogue methods and techniques imparts strategies to create community agreements and expectations; ask questions that seek to build understanding, rather than operating from a place of fear; foster trust; and listen carefully—especially when there is disagreement.

Monday, October 30, 2023

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.


Program is Part of the Dialogues Across Differences Project 

Creating a Calling In Culture within the Reproductive Health, Human Rights, and Justice Movements

Loretta Ross, Smith College

Professor Ross will speak on transforming the Calling Out Culture into a Calling In Culture within the Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice movements. She is committed to changing our national dialogue and improving our work on human rights by inviting us to deeply explore how we can most effectively affect change in our society to protect women’s human rights.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is part of the Dialogues Across Differences Project, which is funded by a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. The program is also co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center, the Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and the Churchill Fund.  In addition, it is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Topic overview written by Phuong Hoang ’26, Clarke Forum Student Project Manager

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Loretta J. Ross is an Associate Professor at Smith College. As a 2022 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Read more

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Poster for Free Speech on Campus

Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

Free Speech on Campus

Sigal Ben-Porath, Professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania

Free speech, a staple of modern democracy, has become the focal point for political and cultural forces impacting universities. Higher education is charged with the mandate to expand the boundaries of knowledge; to disseminate knowledge through teaching and other modes; and to serve the public by training citizens and leaders. To do so it must ensure that a broad range of views and approaches are discussed openly. But should all speech be protected in the name of free inquiry? Should the universities allow bigotry or exclusionary speech that targets specific groups? Should it make room for misinformation? Recent speech controversies around the globe expose the difficulty in carving a response in this polarized time. This struggle over the boundaries of speech is based in disagreement over core democratic principles. A democratic framework of inclusive freedom will be presented and defended. It reflects the values of protecting free thought, inquiry and expression, and maintaining a commitment to the dignity of all campus members.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and is Read more