Participants held each others’ gaze. “This person is 1,000 stories I do not know,” a workshop facilitator said.
This exercise, one in a series of student-run activities that aimed to promote discourse over difference, took place after the annual William Jewett Tucker Lecture on Tuesday afternoon.
In the lecture at the Hanover Inn, philosopher, cultural theorist and novelist Kwame Anthony Appiah discussed using conversation to overcome differences.
Appiah, named one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 public intellectuals in 2008, described his theoretical model for social change. He said change starts with conversations held for their own sake, rather than those that focus on relationship-building, conversion or a search for agreement. These interactions create a base of mutual comfort, which encourages open-mindedness when differences arise.
Appiah said that although social change is reflected in policy and legal reform, change is historically a result of a community’s shifting mindset. He cited examples like social movements to end dueling, foot-binding, slavery and, most recently, honor killing.
Addressing Dartmouth specifically, Appiah said he believes that the first step to institutional change is to acknowledge diversity as a resource. Colleges around the country have worked hard over the past several decades to assemble diverse student populations. Though this wide range of representative experience sometimes can lead to misunderstandings and difficulties, a diverse student body is a fundamental requirement for meaningful campus discourse, he said.
“If that idea were inscribed in the mind of the average Dartmouth person, the place would change,” Appiah said.
Sarah Alexander ’14, who attended the lecture and is familiar with Appiah’s work, said it was helpful to frame the concept of conversations in a way that removed the pressure to come to an agreement.
“It was refreshing to see someone take on the challenge of addressing how to go about having good conversations,” she said.
Wei Wu ’14, who also attended the lecture, said she appreciated the idea that conversation is not necessarily a means for relationship-building, but rather, has merit in itself.
Tucker Foundation director of service and educational programs Helen Damon-Moore said she became convinced that Appiah should visit Dartmouth after hearing him speak on National Public Radio.
Andrew Nalani ’16, a workshop facilitator, said he believes that the Tucker Foundation plays an important role in helping him connect his academic growth to his personal development as a student and global citizen.
“I don’t think any change that is separate from who we are as human beings is sustainable,” he said.
Appiah’s visit comes at a time when the Tucker Foundation considers organizational changes. After College President Phil Hanlon revoked The Right Rev. James Tengatenga’s appointment as Tucker Foundation dean in August, the foundation convened a task force in to discuss its mission, structure and leadership. The task force’s goals included determining whether Tucker should continue to combine service and religious life and recommending a revised governing structure. The group met throughout the fall, gathering feedback from Tucker-sponsored student organizations and hosting open meetings with students and staff. The group’s recommendations have been submitted and are expected to be released next month, Damon-Moore said.
Nalani said he believes the Tucker Foundation is still “dreaming itself into being,” but added that he would like to see the foundation take an increased role in creating an integrated learning community, a place where various facets of identity can be explored in a way that supports intellectual, spiritual and mental well-being.
He said he hopes that the Tucker Foundation moves in a direction that incorporates reflections of meaning and purpose both in and out of the classroom.
Appiah’s talk, “Becoming Global Citizens: Civil Discourse across Difference and for Social Change,” was preceded by an afternoon discussion with various faculty and staff members that focused on best practices for addressing bias.
