The University of Rhode Island is gearing up to host “Polarization of Politics in America: Finding the Center” as part of its Langevin Symposium Series. This event promises to bring in leaders, experts and political professionals from both sides of the aisle to come together to create an important discussion of the polarization of 21st century American politics.
The Langevin Symposium series, in its inaugural year, searches for answers to some of America’s most pressing issues. Named after Former Rhode Island Representative James Langevin, the idea of a symposium with guests from across the nation came up after his retirement.
“He is looking to get back to the state of Rhode Island and engage in various different academic communities,” Marc Hutchinson, chair of the political science department at URI, said.
Langevin said that he had high hopes for this symposium. The first symposium, which spoke on cybersecurity with important guest speakers, was something that he had been working on for a while.
“It was an area of expertise that I had developed for over 20 years in Congress and it’s still relevant. It’s relevant and an important issue today,” Langevin said.
This symposium’s topic on political polarization, according to Langevin, is crucial to spark discussion due to the current state of our country. “How do we find the center?” he asked.
This symposium is hoping to create meaningful dialogue to explore answers for this question.
The event, which will be held on Oct. 17, will be broken into two sections. The first segment, held in the morning, will feature a panel of URI history and political science professors who will speak about different divisive periods of time throughout U.S. history. This first panel will be “looking at everything from the Civil War to the Iraq War and looking at some of the outside reasons why politics has changed and why things have become disruptive,” according to Langevin.
The second part, held in the evening, will be another panel discussion with different national political leaders. Joining Representative Langevin on this panel will be Reince Priebus, former White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump and Former Chair of the Republican National Committee, as well as the Honorable Steve Israel, US Congressman from 2001-2017.
“He [Representative Langevin] felt that they had done some similar discussions on this very topic, and he knew them both and thought this would be a good way to engage in some dialogue,” Hutchison said.
According to Langevin, he would like students to learn and get information from numerous news sources before creating an opinion. He also believes it is imperative for Americans to listen to those who we agree and disagree with.
“The hands of having different speakers that will bring their perspective will help find out where the common ground and the ability to compromise is,” Langevin said.
In his final hopes for the event, Langevin stated, “It is my hope that at the end of the day that everyone comes away from the symposium with a better understanding of the other person’s perspective. We challenge ourselves to ask, is there merit to what they have to say?”
For those who are interested in seeing either of the panels, information and details on registration will be available via the University of Rhode Island’s website under Langevin Symposium linked here. Marc Hutchison shared that any other information will arrive on the same page.