The University of Austin and University of Texas at Austin Present CIVIL DISCORD

On Friday, March 22 of this year, at 2pm, UATX President Pano Kanelos will go head-to-head with Ann Huff Stevens, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin, in debating the topic Is the traditional university broken beyond repair? at an intellectual all-star event on the UT campus. The event is free and open to the public.

‍Stevens v. Kanelos is just one of several spirited debates CIVIL DISCORD will offer. Watch New York Times columnists Michelle Goldberg and Ross Douthat debate Is liberalism doomed? Stephanie Shonekan, Professor of Music and Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland, and Adam Seagrave, Associate Professor of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, will tackle Was 1619 or 1776 the true founding of America? 

Writer Coleman Hughes and UT Austin history professor Peniel Joseph will question whether we should strive for a colorblind America, and UT Austin Dean of Undergraduate Studies Richard Reddick and Columbia linguistics professor John McWhorter will ask whether racism or antiracism is a greater threat to the health of the university. 

Civil Discord is a unique collaboration between three academic entities in Austin that share a commitment to free speech, civil discourse, and the urgent necessity of connecting across scholarly, political, partisan, and ideological lines. Through a series of moderated arguments on issues of great public significance, featuring some of our nation’s best scholars and writers, we will model the life of the mind in a democracy.

Learn more here.

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