The Humanities Research Group opens its 35th year of free talks by leading thinkers with novelist and professor Randy Boyagoda, who argues that universities have always been expected to promote civil discourse and have never satisfied anyone’s expectations that they are doing so successfully.

In his presentation “Civil discourse or civil war? Ideas and Realities of the Contemporary University,” Dr. Boyagoda argues this gap between idea and reality is consistent with a larger gap between ideas and realities of the university, which are always subject to criticism and complaint from their constituents and from the public at large, that they are failing to fulfil their missions and instead sustaining endless conflicts and controversies.

“Do we assign seemingly unmeetable expectations to the university itself and can there be another way to close the gap between our ideas about it, and its realities?” asks Boyagoda. “And could a more durable conception of civil discourse itself be a way of doing so?”

Boyagoda is the University of Toronto’s advisor on civil discourse. The author of seven books, including four novels, a novella, a critical biography, and a scholarly monograph, he is professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he serves as vice-dean, undergraduate in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He contributes essays, reviews, and opinions to a variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Globe and Mail, while appearing frequently on CBC Radio. He served as president of PEN Canada from 2015 to 2017.

His talk, in the SoCA Armouries Performance Hall at 6 p.m. Sept. 26, will be recorded for national broadcast on the CBC Radio program, Ideas. Host Naylah Ayed will attend Thursday.

“We are so excited that CBC Ideas chose the University of Windsor as host to record this important and timely talk by one of the country’s most compelling thinkers and speakers,” says Humanities Research Group director Kim Nelson. “We hope that people spread the word and come early to get a seat to take part in this vital conversation and to show the country the robust intellectual community we have here in Windsor. Doors open at 5:30.”

Ideas is available on CBC Radio One, CBC Listen, and as a podcast.