CofC Podcast: Building Bridges Through Free Expression

Does pineapple belong on pizza?

It’s an easy yes-or-no question for most – far easier to answer than one about, say, politics or religion. It is the kind of question that the Civility Initiative Free Expression Fellows call “low stakes.”

On this episode of the Speaking of … College of Charleston podcast, three of the fellows talk about their efforts to promote effective dialogue on campus. As part of a 10-student cohort, senior Maddie Johnson, senior Lulu McDowell and Honors College sophomore Allie Johnson – all political science majors – are learning to build and assess arguments using evidence, then applying those skills to create spaces for open discussion and debate.

“An effective debate is going to have a reliance on experiences of the person whom you’re having a conversation with, trying to understand them one on one,” says Maddie Johnson. “So, it’s finding that starting point with experience and perspective, being honest and open, asking questions and being open to maybe changing your mind. Maybe you don’t change your mind, and that’s OK, too – but being open to that.”

The students have spent the fall semester in weekly sessions with Michael Lee, professor of communication and director of the College of Charleston Civility Initiative, learning how to navigate productive versus destructive disagreements. They’ve explored emotional regulation, active listening and the importance of asking open-ended questions.

“The Civility Initiative is committed to promoting, practicing and modeling healthy debate and dialogue across the College of Charleston community. The best way to achieve those goals is to model debate and dialogue from both the top down and the bottom up simultaneously,” says Lee. “The Free Expression Fellows are an absolutely essential part of that effort to make sure that our programming is peer to peer. This is a high-visibility, high-impact fellowship program in which students spend one semester learning about debate and dialogue and then spend the second semester engaging their fellow students in dialogues and debates. And, speaking more selfishly, they are extremely bright, hard-working and wildly inspiring group of students, and it is a real joy to work with them!”

The work they’re doing is so transformative and innovative that they were recently featured in an episode of PBS News Hour’s America at a Crossroads with journalist Judy Woodruff: “The rise of viral debate videos and their impact on our ability to disagree.”

Allie Johnson says the experience was incredible and she’s grateful to friends and family who reached out after seeing her on the program, but she hopes people don’t stop there: “I would encourage people who saw us on national television to check out our events next semester and see what we’re doing. The work is ongoing, and what you saw on PBS is a small snippet of what we’re doing.”

When asked what advice they’d give to incoming students, they encourage others to be brave, curious and kind.

“College is a place to learn,” says McDowell. “And learning means being challenged.”

Listen to the full episode above or download from your favorite podcast app:

Featured on this Episode:

• Allie Johnson, an Honors College sophomore majoring in political science with a concentration in politics, philosophy and law
• Maddie Johnson, a senior majoring in political science
• Lulu McDowell, a senior majoring in political science with a concentration in politics, philosophy and law

Resources from this episode:

Want to join the conversation? Visit the Civility Initiative website for upcoming events.