Wake Forest Magazine September 2003 - Past Issues - Wake Forest ...

Exchange of ideasAcademic theme year focuses on dialogue without discord.How can people with passionateinterests and beliefs communicateopenly without turning dialogueinto discord? That’s the question thatnumerous speakers, including PulitzerPrize-winning playwright Tony Kushner,and various events will seek to addressduring the 2003-2004 theme year,“Fostering Dialogue: Civil Discourse inan Academic Community.”“The theme is a call to the WakeForest community to recognize theUniversity as a place where the freeexchange of ideas is celebrated,” saidClaire Hammond, professor of economicsand co-chair of the year’s planningcommittee. “Free speech, open debate,and civil discourse are needed nowmore than ever. As Americans helpbuild a democratic Iraq, come to termswith issues of terrorism and security,and seek ways to work within the internationalcommunity, the art and practiceof dialogue will be crucial.We oweit to our students to teach them andshow them both how to express theirideas and how to listen, criticize, andevaluate the ideas of others.”Kushner is scheduled to speak onNovember 13. One of his plays, Angelsin America,will be performed by theUniversity Theatre in September andOctober. Another speaker is game theoristand political analyst Steven Brams,author of The Win-Win Solution.Other fall events include an exhibiton contemporary Cuban art in theCharlotte and Philip Hanes Art Galleryin the Scales Fine Arts Center; anexhibit at the Museum of Anthropologyon the peaceful co-existence of Muslimsand Jews in Morocco; and an Asian FilmFestival at Reynolda House, Museum ofAmerican Art.A symposium on Native AmericanSovereignty will be held November 6,immediately following the annual conventionof the National IndianEducation Association in Greensboro,North Carolina.Next semester,Tim Wise, senioradvisor at the Race Relations Instituteof Fisk University in Nashville, willspeak on diversification efforts on collegecampuses. Several Irish historicaland literary scholars are scheduled tovisit campus in March to discuss thepeace process in Ireland.The themeyear will conclude in May with WakeForest’s version of London’s “Hyde ParkSpeakers’ Corner,” in which studentswill have a chance to express theirviews on any number of subjects fromthe Quad.Many of the year’s events will befilmed by students in a communicationseminar, “Dialogue and Documentary,”taught by award-winning filmmakerBrett Ingram, who recently joined thecommunication faculty. Students willlearn about producing non-fictionworks on film or video by producingtheir own documentary projects thatexplore the theme “Fostering Dialogue.”Ingram will produce his own documentary,focusing on the students in theseminar as they produce their films.The theme-year logo, which featuresthe profiles of two heads with olivebranches extending from their mouthsand growing together, was designed byCraig Fansler, who works in the Z.Smith Reynolds Library. “The idea offostering dialogue is to promote growthand make something good happen,”Fansler said. “The vines representgrowth occurring as a result of fruitfuldialogue.The theme is extremelyappropriate for the times in which welive. Fruitful dialogue can resolve a hostof evils—between individuals, on campusand in the world.”The latest schedule of events andadditional information is available atthemeyear.wfu.edu or www.wfu.edu/symposium.September 2003 7