The 2024-25 Jepson Leadership Forum invites scholars and experts to discuss how division and polarization affect American democracy. We will explore how and why divisions have manifested historically and currently in the United States, focusing on their impact on justice, education, politics, culture, technology, and class.
Are division and the struggle to find common ground making us stronger or tearing us apart? Join us as we search for answers to this and other questions.
2024–25 Jepson Leadership Forum Speakers
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Jan. 22 • 7 p.m. • Modlin Center for the Arts
Troubling Publics in Troubling Times
Tressie McMillan Cottom
Author, New York Times columnist, 2020 MacArthur fellow, and professor with the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Registration for this presentation opens January 8, 2025.
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Feb. 11 • 7 p.m. • Queally Center for Admission and Career Services
Curriculum Wars: Why K-12 Education Reflects Our Divisions and How It Can Help Us Overcome Them
Natalie Wexler
Education writer and author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—And How to Fix It
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March 4 • 7 p.m. • Queally Center for Admission and Career Services
Class, Status, and Party: Polarization Dynamics and Our Fragile Democratic Experiment
Peter Bearman
Founding director of the interdisciplinary institute Incite at Columbia University and Jonathan R. Cole Professor of Social Science at Columbia University
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Sept. 12 • 5 p.m. • Queally Center for Admission and Career Services
Justice by Means of Democracy
Danielle Allen
James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
*Co-sponsored by the Gary L. McDowell Institute, the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, and the School of Arts & Sciences
Watch the presentation. Listen to the audio.
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Oct. 1 • 7 p.m. • Queally Center for Admission and Career Services
Bridging Divides with Generative AI
Christopher Bail
Professor of sociology, political science, and public policy at Duke University; associate of the Duke Initiative for Science and Society; and founding director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University
Watch the presentation. Listen to the audio. Watch the Take 5 video.
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Nov. 19 • 7 p.m. • Queally Center for Admission and Career Services
How 2020 Shaped 2024
Eric Klinenberg
Author and Helen Gould Shepard Professor of Social Science and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University
Watch the presentation. Listen to the audio.
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