HRG Presents Randy Boyagoda: Civil Discourse or civil war? Ideas and Realities of the Contemporary University

In this lecture, novelist and professor Randy Boyagoda argues that universities have always been expected to promote civil discourse and never satisfy anyone’s expectations that they are doing so successfully. 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? And could a more durable conception of civil discourse itself be a way of doing so?

Randy 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 2015-2017. He lives in Toronto with his wife and four daughters.