Sharp Speaker Series celebrates fostering important and challenging dialogues
UNIVERSITY NEWS
"We experience growth when we exchange ideas and beliefs, including across lines of significant difference,” President Kevin F. Hallock told the audience during the first Sharp Viewpoint Speaker Series event last month.
The annual Sharp Series presents competing views on topics crucial to society. This year’s series explores the University of Richmond’s commitment to free expression and speech as a tool for expressing, responding to, and navigating the fault lines among diverse viewpoints.
Such capacities are “critical to our educational mission at the University of Richmond and to the functioning of democracies,” Hallock said. “They are foundational to the well-being and intellectual vibrancy of our university community and central to preparing our students for lives of purpose, thoughtful inquiry, and responsible leadership in a diverse world.”
Robert P. George, professor and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, kicked off the series by sharing his perspective and expertise on civil liberties and constitutional law during a discussion with Hallock.
The 2024 Sharp Series continues on March 28 with Suzanne Nossel, author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All and CEO of PEN America, a leading human rights and free expression organization. The series concludes on Oct. 24 with the dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky, a leading First Amendment scholar and co-author of Free Speech on Campus.
Hallock said he doesn’t expect that he or audience members will agree with everything the experts in the series have said or will say. “Still, if we just spoke with people we agreed with, I don’t think we’d make much progress, and if we only invited speakers to campus with whom everyone agreed, I’m not sure we’d be able to invite anybody,” Hallock said.
He noted that members of the UR community identify as Spiders, and he encouraged them to think of the bonds that connect them as a web. “We strengthen our web when we listen to one another, give each other the benefit of the doubt, learn, and participate in programs, classes, and activities that broaden our scope of understanding. We can also grow by showing compassion for those with whom we disagree and honoring the humanity in someone else’s story,” he said, “I have learned so much from those with whom I disagree strongly on some issues.”
Engaging across differences is not always easy. “It takes patience, grace, and practice,” Hallock said. “I hope by this speaker series, members of our community will have an opportunity to reflect on why free expression is important and how we can use speech to connect with one another, navigate and learn from our differences, and not only advance our university’s mission but strengthen democratic societies.”