In this episode, we explore how the imagination is essential for building peace and transcending conflict. We also discuss more about how our morality is grounded in imagination. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. John Paul Lederach, Senior Fellow for Humanity United and Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

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Dr. John Paul Lederach is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in the fields of peacebuilding and conflict transformation. He is widely known for the development of culturally based approaches to conflict transformation; the design and implementation of integrative, strategic approaches to peacebuilding; and for carving a robust integration of the arts and social change. Over the course of his career, Lederach has garnered extensive experience working with non-governmental organizations, community-based initiatives impacted by cycles of violence, and national peace process design. He has worked extensively as a practitioner in conciliation processes in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast and Central Asia.

Lederach is the author or editor of 30 books and manuals (translated into a dozen languages), and numerous academic articles and monographs on peace education, conflict transformation, international peacebuilding, and conciliation training. He has developed training materials and manuals available in Spanish on peace education, conflict transformation, and mediation, now used widely throughout Latin America.

Lederach received his bachelor’s degree in history and peace studies from Bethel College and his doctorate of philosophy degree in sociology, with a concentration on social conflict, from the University of Colorado. He currently serves as Senior Fellow for Humanity United and Professor Emeritus of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

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While his full catalog of articles and books is well worth exploring, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic of imagination and peacebuilding:

Lederach, J. P. (2005). The moral imagination : the art and soul of building peace (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.

Lederach, J. P. (2008). Preparing For Peace Conflict Transformation Across Cultures . Syracuse Univ. Press.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠⁠⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠VT Publishing⁠⁠⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

In this episode, we explore how the imagination is used in developing rhetorical strategies. We talk about how rhetoric is based on our values and our ability to think about future possibilities. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Carolyn Commer, Associate Professor in the Department of English at Virginia Tech and Director of the Rhetoric and Writing PhD program.

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Carolyn Commer is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Virginia Tech where she researches the rhetoric of higher education policy, histories of rhetoric, and writing pedagogy. She is also the ⁠Director of the Rhetoric and Writing PhD program⁠.

She has her M.A. in Liberal Arts from ⁠St. John’s College, Annapolis⁠, and her Ph.D. in Rhetoric at ⁠Carnegie Mellon University⁠. She currently teach courses in the Department of English at ⁠Virginia Tech⁠ on ancient and modern histories of rhetoric, critical theory, and professional and technical writing. Her book, ⁠Championing a Public Good: A Call to Advocate for Higher Education⁠, draws from the public record to demonstrate a common set of arguments, metaphors, and rhetorical frames that higher education leaders can use to champion the public value of universities and colleges.

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While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic of imagination and rhetoric:

Commer, C. D. (2024). Championing a Public Good: A Call to Advocate for Higher Education. Penn State Press.

Commer, C. D. (2023). Rhetorical Histories in Motu: On Teaching the Octalogs. Journal for the History of Rhetoric, 26(2), 255-266.

Commer, C. D. (2021). Rivaling the rhetoric of accountability: dissociation as an advocacy strategy in US higher education policy. Argumentation and Advocacy, 57(1), 18-36.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠VT Publishing⁠⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

In this episode, we explore the role of imagination in social movements and the ongoing fight for justice. We investigate both how the imagination helps us think of how the world might be better and identify the problems of the moment. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Michele Moody-Adams, Joseph Straus Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory at Columbia University.

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Michele Moody-Adams is Joseph Straus Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory at Columbia University, where she served as Dean of Columbia College and Vice President for Undergraduate Education from 2009-2011. Before Columbia, she taught at Cornell University, where she was Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Director of the Program on Ethics and Public Life. She has also taught at Wellesley College, the University of Rochester, and Indiana University, where she served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education.

She has published on equality and social justice, moral psychology and the virtues, moral objectivity and moral relativism, and the philosophical implications of gender and race. She is the author of Making Space for Justice: Social Movements, Collective Imagination and Political Hope, published in 2022. She is also the author of a widely cited book on moral relativism, Fieldwork in Familiar Places: Morality, Culture and Philosophy, and a co-author on the multi-author work Against Happiness (May 2023). Her current work also includes articles on academic freedom, equal educational opportunity, democratic disagreement, and what constitutes an epistemically and morally defensible understanding of history. A special focus of her work on democracy is the connection between democracy and the civic art and architecture of remembrance.

---While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic of imagination and justice:

Moody-Adams, M. (2022). Making Space for Justice: Social Movements, Collective Imagination, and Political Hope. Columbia University Press.

Moody-Adams, M. (2015). The enigma of forgiveness. The Journal of Value Inquiry, 49, 161-180.

Moody-Adams, M. M. (2018). Democratic conflict and the political morality of compromise. Nomos, 59, 186-219.

Moody-Adams, M. M. (2017). Moral progress and human agency. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 20, 153-168.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠ and ⁠VT Publishing⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com