ACTA’s College Debates and Discourse (CD&D) Alliance has launched more than 300 Braver Angels debates and workshops, engaging 11,000 students at colleges and universities across the nation. CD&D employs a highly collaborative approach that engages students and faculty to lead civil debates on controversial topics. In this episode of Higher Ed Now, CD&D Program Director Doug Sprei interviews professor Mark Dalhouse and student Ari Miller, who are leading CD&D programming at Duke University in conjunction with ACTA’s two-year research project funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Professor Dalhouse and Ms. Miller share what motivated them to become involved in promoting civil discourse on Duke’s campus.
Download a transcript of the podcast HERE.
Note: Please check any quotations against the audio recording. The views expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of ACTA.
ACTA’s Hero of Intellectual Freedom award was presented to Pano Kanelos, Founding President of the University of Austin. Dr. Kanelos served as the inaugural president of UATX from 2021 to 2024 and then as chancellor until Fall 2025. Under his leadership, UATX devoted itself to showing how higher education can be rescued from the illiberalism […]
In this episode of Radio Free Campus, co-hosts Steve McGuire and Justin Garrison talk with MIT philosopher Alex Byrne about efforts to cancel him for thinking differently about gender and sexuality—and then having the audacity to lend his expertise to the Department of Health and Human Services!
In lieu of a traditional acceptance speech, Philip Merrill Award winner Professor Nadine Strossen engaged in a colloquy with ACTA President Michael Poliakoff. In their compelling discussion, Professor Strosseneloquently illustrates the principles of free speech and open dialogue and why they are so essential for both liberal education and our democratic republic. Read the full […]
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