Renewing America's Civic Compact
The Civic Discourse Project (2021-2022)
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
Can Americans find a path on which we can move together with a sense of purpose to rebuild the public and private institutions through which we sustain our civic, communal, and professional lives? How can we engage civilly amidst competing perspectives in the face of the many trials we face in politics and governance, at home and abroad?
With these questions in mind and guided by the theme "Renewing America's Civic Compact," the 2022 SCETL Conference offers an assessment of what the challenges are to American civic life and its institutions—including the university—and to discuss how to rebuild the institutions and unity of our civil society.
