By MARTY LEVINE
The Year of Discourse and Dialogue has just launched its website this week, had its first committee meetings and is preparing to take project proposals from staff, faculty and students.
The co-chairs hope that its activities will help the University practice what universities are supposed to do best: engage in argument that isn't just contradiction, or worse, abuse, but is truly a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition … as the sages once described it.
Discourse, “traditionally implies that there are two people involved,” says Year of Discourse and Dialogue co-chair and dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs Carissa Schively Slotterback. “It is the year of talking to each other, and that implies that we are listening to each other.”
Finding out exactly what we mean by, and how we practice, discourse may be one of the goals of this year’s theme, says the other co-chair, Kenyon Bonner, vice provost for student affairs. He expects participants “to engage in everyone's perspective on what is discourse. The root is argument ... to put your thoughts and perspectives together and communicate them to others.”
Slotterback hopes the year can make Pitt “an even more effective space for addressing differences … for bringing together expertise.”
Fostering discourse and dialogue, Bonner says, forms “a critical piece of what our role is as a university, providing opportunities for us to practice” what may not be an innate skill. He points out that students, for one, are probably, “for the first time living in an environment where they are starting to challenge their own beliefs.”
Slotterback and Bonner say they have recruited a Year of … committee from all parts of the University, whose work will include offering funding opportunities for activities proposed by Pitt community members. “I'm interested in seeing what the community puts forth,” Bonner says, hoping that “it taps into the talent and expertise the University community has.”
There will be two deadlines for the funding opportunity — Dec. 1, 2023 and Feb. 1, 2024. The portal to submit proposals for the Dec. 1 deadline will open on Nov. 1.
Ensuring that what happens this year can be sustained is another intention, Slotterback says. She hopes the Year of Discourse and Dialogue’s activities will tap into current Pitt research on the subject, in departments ranging from linguistics to computer science. “How do we prepare faculty for working in spaces where conflict might arise?” she asks. “How to prepare students to enter a more contentious world?”
Of course, Bonner adds, all of the above is meant to aid our critical thinking skills, using “the back and forth, seeking to understand, challenging your own perspective.” Groups planning activities for the year may want to team with University programs already focused on discourse and dialogue, such as the Institute of Politics’ All Angles speaker and discussion series for students interested in public policy. They also may want to link up with the Campus Call For Free Expression, of which Pitt is a part, with 14 other universities, at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.
“My ultimate goal,” Bonner says, “is that, whatever we do … the experiences people have with the Year of Discourse and Dialogue facilitates their learning and growth.”
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.