Heterodox Conversations

Heterodox Conversations™️, currently an exclusive offering for our Campus Community Network, are based on a premise that two scholars in different disciplines, with different methodologies, and different perspectives can have a productive and insightful conversation about a topic or question. These signature events:

• demonstrate how viewpoint diversity and constructive disagreement improves critical inquiry into complex topics;

• serve as a model of The HxA Way;

• showcase how academic conversations can work in a style that distinctively differs from competitive debates or one-sided lectures; and

• ignite intellectual curiosity and continued growth toward becoming critical and independent thinkers.

Our curated speaker pairs reflect deliberate efforts to ensure that these signature events spark curiosity in others. Speakers emphasize the process of academic inquiry and how it leads to a particular conclusion or perspective. This is not a debate. Instead, Heterodox Conversations™️ reveal the process of discovery, analysis, and reasoning that result in a conclusion. 

Heterodox Conversations™️ have three distinct sections, with the event lasting 75-90 minutes.

1. Speaker Presentations: Each speaker has 15 minutes to present their scholarship on the topic.

2. Speaker Conversation: Speakers engage in dialogue with each other about their work for 15 minutes.

3. Audience Conversation and Questions: The audience is invited to pose questions and comments for the speakers for 30-45 minutes. Audience members can determine questions individually or in groups.