‘Dialogue Across Difference’ Launches Georgia Tech Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership

On April 2, Georgia Tech launched its new Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership with a symposium built around a simple idea. Society benefits when people are willing to listen, especially to those who disagree with them.

"The Institute will serve as a space to share ideas, learn from one another, and discover common ground," said Amanda Murdie, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

"This is especially important in a moment when technology is rapidly altering how we encounter information, form beliefs, and relate to one another."

"The Institute creates opportunities for students to examine the civic and social implications of technological innovation," said Aaron Levine, associate dean for research and outreach in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and interim executive director of the Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership.

"It will support leaders who can approach difficult questions thoughtfully, drawing on evidence, expertise, and an understanding of diverse perspectives."

That focus was reflected in the symposium's keynote dialogue between Robert George and Cornel West, eminent scholars, longtime friends, and coauthors of Truth Matters: A Dialogue on Fruitful Disagreement in an Age of Division.

The keynote conversation modeled the kind of thoughtful dialogue across deep differences that the new Institute aims to cultivate. George and West do not expect to change each other's minds.For them, persuasion isn't the point.

"We don't often completely change each other's minds about things, but that's not the goal," said George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.

"You can have 100% agreement and be wrong. My goal isn't to persuade him, but to learn what I can from him."

Listening with care and humility to someone who is coming from a very different place, George added, can offer new ways of seeing an issue.

For West, that process begins with resisting easy labels.

"We don't look at the world through the lens of -isms," said West, who is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary.

"You try to listen to a particular argument, put forward by a specific person, and to stay in contact with their humanity. Embrace their humanity."

The two-day event also included panel discussions featuring insights from peer institutions and breakout sessions inviting the campus community to contribute feedback and ideas about the new institute.

The new Institute aims to give students the chance to explore a broad range of ideas about how innovation shapes communities, the economy, and public life. It aims to be a place where people can exchange ideas freely, learn from one another and find common ground - all anchored in open debate, scientific inquiry and evidence-based problem-solving.

It will also serve as a hub for bringing together leaders from government, industry, academia and other sectors to tackle pressing challenges and pursue science- and data-driven solutions.