By KRISTIN KANTHAK

Last week, I was privileged to find myself in several campus conversations with Rajiv Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars. The University of Pittsburgh is a signatory of the organization’s Campus Call for Free Expression, a program meant to highlight and facilitate critical inquiry and civic discourse on college campuses. Raj’s visit to Pitt was part of that program and his larger effort to teach citizens the skills that comprise “civic preparedness.”

We are civically prepared when we have a set of knowledge, strategies and skills that allow us to engage meaningfully in civic life in a pluralistic society. But what struck me most about what Raj had to say was how often his message highlighted the importance of simple curiosity. Civically prepared people are citizens who are curious about their fellow citizens. They seek to understand across differences, hoping to find commonalities but willing to explore the boundaries of our divergence. I think the Pitt community has a lot to learn from Raj and his colleagues as we navigate the difficult times ahead.

To Raj, civic preparedness is, in part, the willingness to lead with our intellectual humility and to be curious about those who disagree with us. Curiosity and intellectual humility are what universities do best — or at least they are supposed to be. And universities are also communities. Raj thinks about communities as intersecting circles. We at the University of Pittsburgh are a series of intersecting circles — we have diverse identities and we can differ on issues large and small. But at some point, our circles overlap, and that’s the “sweet spot” for allowing our intellectual humility and our curiosity to do their work.

We have difficult times ahead and our community faces significant existential threats as politicians debate the value of knowledge itself. As we traverse these formidable times together, we must remember to lead with humility and curiosity, especially when it comes to our fellow members of the University of Pittsburgh community.

When a member of our Pitt family tells us they are hurting, we should be curious about that. We should consider that an opportunity not only to learn, but to build community. Simply put, we should listen.

We do not need to intellectualize what their pain means for our ability to invite whatever campus speakers we want. We do not need to counter that others feel pain too. We do not need to ask for whom the person voted in the last election. We should not refuse to listen for fear of what their pain might mean for our views on the geopolitical issues of the day. We just need to be intellectually humble, curious and willing to practice civic preparedness.

Kris Kanthak is vice president of Senate Council and associate professor of political science.