matthew burgess event poster

This fall, the Reducing Polarization Dialogues with Matt Burgess will befrom 12-1pm on the second Friday of each month:Feb. 9, March 8, April 12, and finish May 10.

Political polarization has become a threat to our democracy and our universities. To address this, we are hosting a regular series events, aimed at creating meeting spaces for folks on campus (students, staff, and faculty, administrators and community members) who are interested in building bridges across ideological and other types of differences. Starting in Fall 2023, our dialogs will be jointly hosted by four ֱ universities: the University of ֱ Boulder, the University of ֱ Denver, University of Denver, and ֱ Mesa University.

Our main events will be monthly Zoom dialogs. These discussions start with discussion prompts and sometimes background articles (sent around beforehand). We start in one big room and split off into breakout rooms depending on the size of the group. Topics either focus on an issue being discussed publicly, or an issue motivated by the science of how to reduce inter-group conflict. For example, we often start the year by discussing: "Where do your perspectives come from?” The idea was to share how our upbringings and experiences have influenced our views, in order to build a foundation of understanding and empathy. For more information on previous editions of our series, see .

This series is co-sponsored by the Heterodox Academy Campus Communities ofԻ, and theBenson Center for the Study of Western Civilizationat the University of ֱ Boulder; and it is supported byand the.