Universities have always been places where the accepted and contested knowledge exist side by side, and where that proximity is itself the point. The question of how to build communities where disagreement sharpens thinking rather than fraying it is one Michigan has been working on seriously for a long time. This edition of the Provost’s Office Newsletter is centered on bringing some of that work into view. 

The pieces gathered in this issue approach open inquiry, dialogue, and civil discourse from several different angles. One piece gives faculty the space to describe, in their own words, how they handle genuinely controversial material in the classroom: the techniques they have developed, the frameworks they rely on, and the ways they create conditions in which students can engage with difficulty rather than retreat from it. 

Another is an interview with two professors who teach a course in LSA on nature and nurture from complementary disciplinary perspectives. Since the class touches nearly every contested question in contemporary science and society, it is an examination of how structured dialogue becomes a form of intellectual education in its own right. 

A third piece looks at the Heterodox Academy and its presence at Michigan. The organization is committed to the proposition that intellectual curiosity and viewpoint diversity are inseparable; it is growing rapidly and enjoys an active campus community on the Ann Arbor campus.

In this newsletter, our Mythbreaking feature on the Kelsey Museum of Archeology takes on some assumptions about what a research museum does, making the case that open inquiry is not only a classroom matter; you can learn about Dialogue Michigan, which launched this past January to make the curriculum and resources developed over decades by the Program on Intergroup Relations available across the full campus community; and read an update on the Talking Maize & Blue program, which has been building a broader campus culture of open inquiry since its introduction to incoming students last fall.

This September will bring the launch of the Center for American Dialogue (CAD), announced by President Grasso and led by Vice President for Research and Innovation Arthur “Skip” Lupia. The vision for the CAD is that of a service-focused hub enabling students, faculty, staff and the public to collaborate and solve problems in an era dominated by polarization and eroding civic trust.

Each of these pieces describe work taking place across the university that is connected by a shared belief that inquiry is strengthened through engagement. Faculty, students, and staff are developing ways to help people ask better questions, examine assumptions more carefully, and stay curious about perspectives and experiences outside their own. The approaches vary widely, but they share an understanding that an intellectual life is one we live and create together.

Warmly,

Laurie