Difficult Dialogue: “Election Year Polarization: Can we stay good neighbors?"

Difficult Dialogues

Difficult Dialogue: “Election Year Polarization: Can we stay good neighbors?"

Part of the CHA'sDifficult Dialogueseries, partnered with and ֱ Libraries

September 16, 2024
6:30pm - 8pm
Grace Commons Church - Boulder, ֱ

ֱ the Event

November 2024’s US presidential election will occur against a backdrop of polarization on multiple fronts: between political parties, among various ideologies and religious affiliations, and amidst war and conflict around the globe. The stakes for this election also feel high—for civil rights, for peace around the world, and for US democracy. No matter what the outcome is after November 5, 2024, there will be people in our lives (family, friends, neighbors, co-workers) who likely will not agree with the outcomes (presidential or otherwise).

For this Fall 2024 Difficult Dialogue, we ask how we can remind ourselves of our common humanity with those we disagree with—how we can continue to be in conversation with others who did not vote the way we voted and thus who we believe may not share our values. How do we stay good neighbors even while we may have hurt feelings or recognize the hurt feelings of others? Can we break bread together, in disagreement, acknowledging fears and anxieties but also remembering that the people we face conflict with are our neighbors? Our panelists discussed how to navigate these difficult conversations around politics and polarization, and we invite our audience to share their questions, concerns, and concrete ideas for how to remain in fellowship with people whose values we may question because they are at odds with our own values.

This event was on Monday, September 16th from 6:30pm - 8:00pm at Grace Commons Church (Boulder, CO), in which we saw 71 attendees from the ֱ Boulder, Boulder County, and Grace Commons community.

ճDifficult Dialogue event seriesbrings together local voices to explore complex topics, fostering mutual understanding and a respectful discourse. Difficult Dialogue events aim to create a space for grappling with tough subjects that people may find difficult or uncomfortable to talk about. These events are not debates but platforms for thoughtful exchange.

Our purpose is to hold dialogues on topics considered difficult, provocative, or controversial, among constituents that may have strong conflicting views.Our objective is NOT to necessarily agree, fix anything, prove anyone right or wrong, or alter anyone’s position.

We are committed to fostering productive dialogues in the hopes that minds and hearts might expand. We ask that you:

  1. Keep an open mind
  2. Be respectful of others
  3. Listen with the intent to understand
  4. Speak your own truth

We expect to experience discomfort when talking about hard things. Remain engaged and recognize that the discomfort can lead to problem-solving and authentic understanding.


Images from Event

A group of 5 people standing, smiling at the camera

Panel from the panel discussion event "Difficult Dialogues: Election Year Polarization - Can we stay good neighbors?" on September 16, 2024.

Left to right: Carl Hofmann, Jennifer Ho, Aaron Brockett, Michaele Ferguson, Angie Chuang, and Matthew Koschmann

A man in a blue blazer holding a microphone sitting down, speaking to an unseen audience, with a man and a woman on his left looking at him. They are sitting at a table

Matthew Koschmann (left) with a microphone speaking to audience, with Mayor Aaron Brockett and Professor Angie Chuang on the right.

Image of a printed flyer that reads "Fall 2024 Difficult Dialogue - Election Year Polarization: Can we stay good neighbors?" with a graphic text bubble that reads "Difficult" on the left side and "Dialogues" on the right. Background is a blurred audience sitting down, facing away from the camera.

Flyer of event "Difficult Dialogues: Election Year Polarization - Can we stay good neighbors?" with blurred crowd of attendees in the background.


Panelists

Mayor of Boulder (2023 - 2026)

Aaron Brockett grew up in the small college town of Sewanee, TN. He attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where he majored in Music and met his wife-to-be Cherry Anderson. After 8 years of living together in Stamford, CT, Aaron and Cherry moved to Boulder in 2003. They've raised their two children in North Boulder and ran a small software development firm together for 20 years. After serving for 5 years on the city's Planning Board, Aaron was first elected to the city council in 2015, was re-elected in 2019, and became mayor in November of 2021. In his time on City Council, he has focused on climate change, housing, transportation, social justice, and racial equity.

He served for 6 years on the Denver Regional Council of Governments and is currently a member of the Boulder Racial Equity Guiding Coalition, the Metro Mayors Caucus, the Northwest Mayors and Commissioners Coalition, the Highway 119 Executive Committee and numerous other committees. As part of the city’s commitment to advancing racial equity, Mayor Brockett has attended the Advancing Racial Equity: Role of Government and Bias and Microaggression Trainings.


Angie Chuang, Panelist

Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism

Angie Chuangis an associate professor of journalism whose research and teaching focus on race, identity and representations of Otherness. She came to academia after 13 years as a national and regional award-winning newspaper reporter at The Oregonian, The Hartford Courant , and the Los Angeles Times. A The Oregonian,  she launched one of the first beats on race and ethnicity issues and reported from Afghanistan, Vietnam, and the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.Her scholarly work on race and media has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly; Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism; Ի Communication, Culture and Critique. Her reporting in Afghanistan became the backbone of her literary journalism-memoir book, The Four Words for Home (Aquarius Press-Willow Books, 2014), which won an Independent Publishers Book Award Bronze Medal. Her media commentary has appeared inThe Washington Post,The Conversation,Huffington Post,The Root,Poynter Online, The Seattle TimesԻ The Oregonian.

In her first academic appointment at American University, Chuang was awarded the Ann S.FerrenCurriculum Design Award for creating the pilot of a mandatory first-year course on race and social identity. She has also served as a consultant on DEI issues to National Public Radio, Atlantic Media, Bloomberg Industry Group,and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Michaele Ferguson, Moderator

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science; Director, Center for Critical Thought

Michaele L. Ferguson is an Associate Professor of Political Science and a President’s Teaching Scholar at the University of ֱ at Boulder. She is the author ofSharing Democracy(Oxford University Press, 2012), co-editor with Lori J. Marso ofW Stands for Women: How the George W. Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender(Duke University Press, 2007), and co-editor with Andrew Valls ofIris Marion Young: Gender, Justice, and the Politics of Difference(Routledge, 2022). She has written numerous articles on feminist and democratic theory, including “Dead Dogma and the Limits of Feminist Political Imagination: Thinking #Metoo as Consciousness-Raising," inTheory & Event(2022), and with Alisa Kessel the satirical “Correspondence in re:Brotherhood is Powerful,” inPolitical Theory(2023).

She is currently finishing a book on feminist political theory,Bandita: Iris Marion Young and the Politics of Writing, Reading, and Citation, and developing a role-playing game on the Paris Commune. She is a Faculty Fellow with the ֱ Boulder Office of Faculty Affairs, a Member-at-Large in the Boulder Faculty Assembly, a Consulting Editor forContemporary Political Theory, and the Special Envoy for the Reacting Consortium.

Matthew Koschmann, Panelist

Associate Professor, Department of Communication

Matthew A. Koschmann(PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of ֱ Boulder. His research focuses on organizational communication and collaboration, with an emphasis on the civil society sector and nonprofit organizations. He teaches classes on organizational communication, leadership, collaboration, persuasion, group interaction, qualitative research methods, and organizational theory and philosophy. Visit histo learn more about his current research projects, review his CV, access his publications and course syllabi, and watch the animation videos he produced.

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