Tough Talk: How to Have Real Dialogue on Hard Issues (3/9)

Thursday, March 9
3:30-5:00
EW 115B

Sex. Politics. Religion. Topics to avoid at the dinner table, because they are too volatile for polite company. Yet these hot-button issues are at the heart of law, public policy, and contemporary civic life. How can we engage in honest and respectful dialogue about emotionally-charged issues without facing a breakdown of communication and descending into tribalism? In an increasingly divided body politic, we need to be able to have open conversations about the tough stuff.

Featuring:

Susan Podziba, Public Policy Mediator
Founder, Susan Podziba & Associates

SP&A creates opportunities for deliberative interactions between government and the governed that build unique solutions to complex public policy challenges and, at the same time, strengthen the fabric of democratic governance. As a public policy mediator for more than two decades, Susan Podziba has assisted participants of public deliberative processes in using their collective knowledge, and even their opposing passions, to construct innovative solutions that reflect existing possibilities and political constraints. Susan Podziba co-facilitated secret talks between Massachusetts Pro-Life and Pro-Choice leaders with Laura Chasin of the Public Conversations Project (PCP). The talks, initially slated for four three-hour meetings over the period of one month, continued over six years and culminated in a consensus article published in the Boston Globe, entitled, “Talking With the Enemy.”

Tim Muldoon, Director, The Church in the 21st Century Center

The Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College seeks to be a catalyst and resource for the renewal of the Catholic Church in the United States by engaging critical issues facing the Catholic community. Drawing from both the Boston College community and others, its activities currently are focused on four challenges: handing on and sharing the Catholic faith, especially with younger Catholics; fostering relationships built on mutual trust and support among lay men and women, vowed religious, deacons, priests, and bishops; developing an approach to sexuality mindful of human experience and reflective of Catholic tradition; and advancing contemporary reflection on the Catholic intellectual tradition.

Presented by the LSA Diversity Committee
Refreshments will be served.