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Does ideological diversity improve campus culture?
The ideal college campus, the thinking goes, is a place where students and professors engage respectfully across the ideological gulfs that divide them. Yet free thought and expression are being squeezed from many sides: peer pressure from students and faculty, university leaders leery of the fallout from campus protests, and a presidential administration that has clear views about what kinds of speech it favors and is not shy to assert them.
Professor Eitan Hersh has been given the daunting task of bringing the two sides together in constructive engagement as Tufts University’s inaugural director for the Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education. Hersh believes the students themselves can change polarization “from the bottom up” by being defenders of truth and decorum. A professor of political science who teaches classes on elections, technology and American conservatism, he joins Terms of Engagement hosts Stephen Richer and Archon Fung to discuss how to create a new campus atmosphere of “robust intellectual life, where norms of curiosity and goodwill reign.”
About our Guest
Eitan Hersh is a professor of political science at Tufts University and the inaugural director for the school’s Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education. Hersh's research focuses on US elections and civic participation. Hersh is the author of “Politics is for Power” (Scribner, 2020), “Hacking the Electorate” (Cambridge UP 2015), as well as numerous scholarly articles. Hersh earned his PhD from Harvard in 2011 and has served as assistant professor of political science at Yale University. His public writings have appeared in venues such as the New York Times, USA Today, The Atlantic, POLITICO, and the Boston Globe. He regularly testifies in voting rights court cases and has testified to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the role of data analytics in political campaigns. He teaches courses on elections, technology and politics, and American conservatism.
About Terms of Engagement
From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.
Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.
Contact Us
Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].
About the Hosts
Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.
Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”
About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.
Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group
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By Harvard Ash CenterThe ideal college campus, the thinking goes, is a place where students and professors engage respectfully across the ideological gulfs that divide them. Yet free thought and expression are being squeezed from many sides: peer pressure from students and faculty, university leaders leery of the fallout from campus protests, and a presidential administration that has clear views about what kinds of speech it favors and is not shy to assert them.
Professor Eitan Hersh has been given the daunting task of bringing the two sides together in constructive engagement as Tufts University’s inaugural director for the Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education. Hersh believes the students themselves can change polarization “from the bottom up” by being defenders of truth and decorum. A professor of political science who teaches classes on elections, technology and American conservatism, he joins Terms of Engagement hosts Stephen Richer and Archon Fung to discuss how to create a new campus atmosphere of “robust intellectual life, where norms of curiosity and goodwill reign.”
About our Guest
Eitan Hersh is a professor of political science at Tufts University and the inaugural director for the school’s Center for Expanding Viewpoints in Higher Education. Hersh's research focuses on US elections and civic participation. Hersh is the author of “Politics is for Power” (Scribner, 2020), “Hacking the Electorate” (Cambridge UP 2015), as well as numerous scholarly articles. Hersh earned his PhD from Harvard in 2011 and has served as assistant professor of political science at Yale University. His public writings have appeared in venues such as the New York Times, USA Today, The Atlantic, POLITICO, and the Boston Globe. He regularly testifies in voting rights court cases and has testified to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the role of data analytics in political campaigns. He teaches courses on elections, technology and politics, and American conservatism.
About Terms of Engagement
From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.
Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.
Contact Us
Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected].
About the Hosts
Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.
Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”
About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.
Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group