Day Two: February 25, 2025

9–10:30 a.m. | Location TBD

How do we develop the skills in young people to become civically engaged in strengthening democracy? This panel explores two programs designed to strengthen dialogue across diverse and difficult topics that can often polarize citizens. BridgeUSA will share how they build community across issue diversity among young people. The University of Richmond will present its comprehensive approach to understanding and enacting democratic practices explicitly attuned to the contemporary moment’s many crises of democratic institutions and values.

Panel Facilitators: Nancy Chick and Micki Meyer | Rollins College

Panelists:

• BridgeUSA
  • Hailie Addison | Director of National Programs
• The Project for Democratic Pedagogy at the University of Richmond
  • Nathan Snaza | Director, Humanities Center
  • Alice Joan Saab | Provost and Professor of Art and Art History
  • Lidia Radi | Professor of French and Literature
  • Marissa Jackson Sow | Professor of Law
  • Theresa Dolson | Senior Associate Director for Community-Engaged Learning, Bonner Center for Civic Engagement
• “Deliberative Dialogue: Strategies for Student Engagement”
  • Meredith Hein | Rollins College
  • Victoria Teske | Rollins College

9–10:30 a.m. | Location TBD

How do Dewey's views on education apply to international and cross-cultural contexts? Should education for liberal democracy be mindful of important situational and cultural differences? What universal attitudes or concerns, if any, should pedagogic efforts in the pragmatist tradition of higher learning foster? This panel will examine these issues and similar others.

Panel Facilitator: Julia Maskivker | Rollins College

Panelists:

• Leonard J. Waks | Temple University | “Liberal Arts Education and the Campus Community”
• Eli Kramer | University of Wroclaw, Poland | “Dewey and Reconstructive Humane Learning”
• Zhenyu Gao | Hangzhou Normal University, China | “Philosophy for Children as Civic Education: Building a Community of Inquiry in the Classroom of Primary School in China”
• Jie Yu | Rollins College | “The Taoist Pedagogy of Pathmarks: Critical Reflections upon Heidegger, Dewey, and Lao Tzu”

What do universities owe democracy? What is the civic mission of higher education, how is it grounded, and what is its mandate? What are the learning outcomes required to equip every graduate with the knowledge, skills, and values to participate responsibly as a citizen in a diverse democracy?

10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m | Location TBD

Panel Facilitator: Andres Romero | Rollins College and Elton Skendaj | Georgetown University

Panelists:

• Carol Schneider | Senior Advisor, Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement Coalition; President Emerita, American Association of Colleges and Universities
• Beverly Sanford | Executive Vice President/Chief Program & Fellowships Officer, The Institute for Citizens & Scholars’ College Presidents for Civic Preparedness
• Emily Russell | Rollins College | “Civil Disagreement in the Classroom: Observing Student Behavior”
• Elton Skendaj | Director, Democracy and Governance Program, Georgetown University | “Practicing Dialogue Across Difference”

12:15–1:30 p.m. | Rice Pavilion

Speaker: Richard Guarasci | President Emeritus, Wagner College

Introduction: Donald Davison | Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Rollins College

1:45-3:15 p.m. | Location TBD

What is the history and promise of academic research and scholarship with regard to its influence on shaping democratic values and culture? What is the role of scholars as public intellectuals, interpreting and commenting on public affairs? How does scholarship shape culture? How critical are freedom of inquiry and academic freedom to a democracy?

Facilitators:

• Donald Davison | Rollins College
• Michael Murray | The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

Participants:

• Michael Murray | President and CEO, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
• Frederick M. Lawrence | Secretary and CEO, The Phi Beta Kappa Society
• Laurie Patton | President, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Professor and President Emerita, Middlebury College
• Barbara Perry | Co-Chair, Presidential Oral History Program, University of Virginia

3:30–5 p.m. | Location TBD

The value of higher education generally, and a liberal arts education in particular, is viewed with heightened skepticism. While there are many inspiring anecdotes about the value of a liberal education, it is increasingly important for the sector to produce high quality, evidence-based research on the post-graduation outcomes of such an education, and around its civic value in particular. In this session researchers will address these questions and explore the impact of many educational variables on post-graduate trajectories.

Panel Facilitators: Dan Chong and Dexter Boniface | Rollins College

Panelists:

• Radomir Ray Mitic, William & Mary, and Leping Mou, University of Glasgow |“Examining the Impact of Public Liberal Arts Education on Cultivating Civic and Democratic Citizenship: Causes and Results”
• Elizabeth D. Pisacreta | Educational Transformation, Ithaka S+R | “Using Student Data to Understand the Economic Value of a Liberal Education”
• Nancy Thomas | Executive Director, American Association of Colleges and Universities | “Re-Designing Democracy on College Campuses”