Contested Speech in (Post)-Modernity: Understanding Debates About Political Dialogue on College Campuses

Abstract

Background:

In recent years, commentators have often criticized university students for their perceived lack of willingness to engage in dialogue with peers and speakers with whom they disagree.

Objective:

Although commentators tend to argue over whether students should engage in dialogue across differences, this article examines a different question: Why does talk itself matter so much to contemporary political struggles, particularly on college campuses?

Research Design:

This article is situated primarily in theoretical work such as the scholarship of Charles Taylor, Hannah Arendt, and John Dewey. To illustrate the theoretical claims, the article also draws on contemporary examples of controversies over speech within higher education and on the author’s longitudinal, qualitative study of structured dialogue sessions between politically opposed college students.

Conclusion:

The author argues that controversies over speech on college campuses are rooted partly in longstanding tensions within the modern liberal imaginary, which are exacerbated by the ways in which that worldview has extended into postmodern conceptions of personhood.