Americans are losing the ability to talk to each other, especially when they disagree. This is happening on university campuses, too, where experts say students increasingly are drawn to professors, speakers, and fellow students who have similar backgrounds and views, and are failing to learn how to engage productively with opposing voices.

To that end, the SNF Agora Institute’s university debate initiative aims to model the habits and virtues of reasoned debate across different perspectives, and the possibilities for finding common ground amid disagreement.

The debate initiative will host a pair of marquee moderated debates each year that bring to the university major speakers, such as public intellectuals, former government officials, and media personalities. The program will also fund and support a number of additional debates organized by students each semester, to enable healthy debate to be a recurring feature of campus life.

At Johns Hopkins University’s annual Democracy Day, new students learn about the importance of—and threats to—modern democracies

For most Johns Hopkins undergraduates, the college experience is filled with a long list of firsts—including the first election in which they are eligible to vote. With that in mind, JHU held its third annual Democracy Day on Saturday, offering students an introduction to the democratic process and the ways they can engage with it.

Much of this year’s [2023] programming focused on the problems facing democracy, a theme JHU President Ron Daniels echoed in his opening remarks.

”Liberal democracy … is not a self-executing endeavor,” he said. “We have seen time and time again throughout history that it can be derailed through apathy and indifference on the one hand, and nativism and fear on the other. For democracy to survive and to thrive, it must always be re-examined, re-energized, and renewed by lawyers, historians, philosophers, elected officials, and organizers

The annual Elijah E. Cummings Democracy and Freedom Festivals—”a free event brings together scholars and practitioners from across the country to join with the Johns Hopkins and Baltimore communities as we grapple with some of the most urgent challenges facing democracy, model civic engagement across divides, and celebrate democratic resilience and opportunity”.

Celebrating the life and legacy of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, The Elijah E. Cummings Democracy and Freedom Festival is a series of events aimed at educating citizens about the importance of democracy and its essential role in advancing freedom, justice, and equality for all. Hosted by the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins.