She Can Take the Heat

ASU’s Jennifer Linde Takes Questions in the Green Room

Jennifer Linde is a senior lecturer in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University and the artistic director of The Empty Space, a performance venue featuring scholarship-based work by students and faculty. She has directed and performed in numerous projects and put together civil dialogue events at The Empty Space. Her biography notes that her courses have concerned “facilitating a Civil Dialogue,” and “performance of sexuality,” among other things. Naturally, this came up for discussion when Linde, before participating in a panel on civility in American …

Meenakshi Chakraverti

Some Wise Thoughts on Airplanes and Breakfast

Meenakshi Chakraverti is director of San-Diego-based Public Conversations West (PCWest), a branch of the Public Conversations Project (PCP). She has studied conflict and facilitated conversations across the United States and …

Berkeley’s Henry Brady

There Goes My Chance For a Newt Gingrich Staff Gig

Henry Brady is dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked in Washington, D.C. at the Office of Management and Budget, …

Shove Your Civility

Can Americans—Should Americans—Disagree Less Bitterly?

Yes, Americans are polarized. Yes, we’re also uncivil about it. We shout at our fellow citizens across barricades, leave enraged posts on websites, and tune in to watch people shouting …

Are We Less Civil Now?

America’s Political Past Was Nastier in Some Ways-And Nicer In Others

 

In 21st-century American politics, the combatants don’t agree on much. But they do agree that political discourse isn’t as civil it should be. This is a very old complaint, since …

I Disagree, You Stupid Racist Fascist Sheep

How to Create More Civil Communities Online

Looking for a public space full of nasty rhetoric? It’s hard to beat the comments sections next to online articles. These spaces, for all their great potential for exchanges, often …