UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The director of Penn State’s Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative will facilitate the concluding symposium in the Schreyer Honors College’s “Dialogues of Democracy.”
Boaz Dvir, who also directs the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State, will lead a discussion about “Building a Stronger Democratic Future Through Pedagogical Innovation” at 5 p.m. Feb. 1 in Atherton Hall’s Grandfather Clock Lounge.
The 90-minute event is free and open to all Penn State students. Registration is not required but encouraged. A Zoom link will be emailed in advance of the symposium to those who register and cannot attend in person.
“I’m honored and excited to participate in this timely, vital series,” said Dvir, an associate professor of journalism in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. “We must do everything we can to strengthen our next generation’s grasp of our democratic values. We must provide young people with insight into how a democratic society functions and how it can fall apart, help them gain critical-thinking and fact-finding skills and give them opportunities to engage in civic discourse and develop empathy. Otherwise, we risk eroding or even losing the world’s greatest democratic model.”
“Dialogues of Democracy” started in September with a lecture by Yale University’s Timothy Snyder, author of “On Tyranny,” and continued in October with presentations by Penn State’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy Managing Director Christopher Beem and Ambassador Dennis Jett.
Penn State alumni Art and Betty Glenn made the series possible through a contribution to the Schreyer Honors College.
“More engaged students will carry that engagement throughout their lives, so Professor Dvir’s topic is vital to the strengthening of democracy at all levels,” said Richard Stoller, interim associate dean for academic affairs in the Schreyer Honors College.
Based at the Bellisario College, the Hammel Family Human Rights Initiative and the Holocaust Education Initiative help K-12 educators effectively navigate a variety of difficult topics and issues, including human rights abuses and trauma.