October 3, 2019 | Forum: Can We Talk? Dialogue and Debate in the Contemporary Academy
With Forum 2019, we will take the opportunity to look inward at one of the biggest challenges facing universities today: the problem of honest discussion within our own institutional borders. In seeking a topic that would serve our own Boston University community we recognized that no subject was of greater moment than the challenge of open debate, and in this sense, Forum 2019 is motivated by the broader (and equally contemporary) concerns about free speech. Any academic environment depends on its capacity to generate and articulate ideas while protecting the rights of its various members—faculty, students, administrators, staff—to express and defend those ideas in an environment of earnest intellectual debate. Yet one could argue that it is precisely this capacity, and its status as a value, that is most often questioned on contemporary college campuses. With Forum 2019, we hope to provide just such an opportunity.
To this end, Forum 2019 will feature three panels: Panel I: “Language Matters: Discussing Difficult Texts”; Panel II: “Corporate University: Acknowledging Student, Faculty, and Administration Fault Lines”; Panel III: “Shop Talk: Dialogue Across Labor Divides.” The Forum will conclude with a roundtable reflection. Throughout the day, we will hear a range of voices, from faculty of different levels—adjuncts, tenured, untenured—to staff, senior administrators, and graduate students. Forum 2019 will be held at the new WBUR CitySpace, an auditorium whose structure minimizes the distance between panelists and audience. Each panel will be a “lightning round” of presentations, with speakers offering short, provocative remarks in order to ensure discussion that includes the audience. We hope that Forum 2019 will promote more meaningful and open dialogue at BU and beyond.
For more information check out the BUCH Forums website here.