Each week, it seems, brings more challenges to civility in our daily lives—whether in the political sphere, our communities, even in our friendship and family circles. Clearly, what we’re doing isn’t working but what can be done? Steven Petrow, the 2024 North Carolina Piedmont Laureate and TED Talk speaker (“3 Ways to Practice Civility”), convenes some of our nation’s best thinkers on how to overcome the polarization, isolation, and loneliness that is fueling this crisis of civility. Says Petrow: “We really have no choice if we are to survive. We’ve got to regain our ability not only to speak to each other but to listen, to disagree without disrespect, and to re-find our common ground as inhabitants of this great land. Each of our participants will bring specific and concrete ways that we can do better, starting now."

This virtual program is co-sponsored by the Wake County Public Libraries and Durham County Library, as well as the Durham Arts Council and the United Arts Wake County.

Click Here to register.

Meet the Panelists: 

LIZZIE POST is a co-president, author and spokesperson for The Emily Post Institute. She is a great-great-granddaughter of Emily Post. Lizzie spearheads the Institute’s publishing efforts and co-hosts the podcast, Awesome Etiquette. She regularly shares advice about entertaining, weddings, dating, identity, finance and lifestyle, and how we can get along better with each other.

PRESTON BRIGHTWELL is a Field Director for Unite and the Dignity Index team. His primary work is on the Students For Dignity National Campaign, which is tasked with bringing the Students for Dignity model to campuses across the country. What excites him most about this work is the power it has to promote healthy disagreement and solve the most pertinent problems facing our nation. 

RAYMOND MAR is currently a full professor of psychology at York University in Toronto. His lab investigates how imagined experiences affect how we think, feel, and behave in the real-world, with a particular focus on how stories engage our imagination.  

“Engaging with fictional stories and the characters within them might help us better understand our real-world peers,” he’s written. Mar has received the Tom Trabasso Young Investigator award from the Society for Text and Discourse, a Radboud Excellence Professorship from Radboud University (NL), and held the Fulbright Canada Research Chair at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy in 2023. 

TANIA ISRAEL is a Professor of Counseling Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and award-winning author of Beyond Your Bubble: How to Connect Across the Political Divide, Skills and Strategies for Conversations That Work (APA, 2020). Dr. Israel’s work on dialogue across political differences has been received enthusiastically by professional conferences, corporations, campuses, political organizations, and faith communities.  

MADELEINE JONES is a Dignity Index Field Director at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, where she supports the Students for Dignity, develops training curriculums, and advances the goals of the UNITE initiative. Madeleine studied political science, psychology and sociology at the University of Utah. Throughout her academic career, she worked on the development team at the Granite Education Foundation, interned for the Office of Legislative Research and General Council, and participated in the Dignity Index Pilot Project.