Civil Discourse at Roger Williams University

"I’m not sure why I’ve been invited to speak on civil discourse" is one of most common opening remarks audiences at RWU have heard in recent years. Intended as a humorous ice-breaker the comment, undoubtedly, hinges on the meaning of “civil” in civil discourse, particularly for such speakers as Salman Rushdie, Bob Geldof, and Sam Harris, who question… Continue reading

With its founding in 1921, the members of International PEN made clear the relationship between intellectual freedom and civil discourse: to imagine a world free of national, ethnic, and racial hatreds, writers are obligated to promote understanding among all countries by speaking on behalf of those fellow writers whose speech is censored. PEN was well-represented at Roger Williams University during a colloquium entitled Intellectual Freedom in the Middle East. On… Continue reading

With RWU President Roy J. Nirschel’s recent announcement on assisting to free Kareem Amer, an imprisoned Egyptian blogger, the PEN Collaborative on campus is in good company. Counseled by Professor Adam Braver, the PEN Collaborative is a student run organization and class that campaigns for international imprisoned writers. The majority of the academic year was spent researching and campaigning for the case of Dolma Kyab, a wrongfully imprisoned Tibetan school teacher who wrote a book on the geography of Tibet that Chinese officials felt exposed top secret information. Early on in the second semester Kareem Amer’s case was assigned to the class. Continue reading