SPRING 2025

Civility, Courage & Conviction

Artwork: “Winding Road through Valley of Summer Fields” by Stephen Conroy

FROM THE EDITOR

Welcome

Suzanne Shanahan, Editor

This issue of Virtues & Vocations: Higher Education for Human Flourishing focuses on civic virtue and, more specifically, civility and our ability to summon the courage to act on our convictions in difficult times.

For more than 250 years, higher education has served as an anchor for democracy in the United States. In fall 2022, Wes Siscoe, then a Virtues & Vocations post-doctoral fellow (now assistant professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University), wrote a compelling essay on civic virtue in higher education. 

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PART I:

Defining Virtue

Student Civic Virtues and the Conviction of Courage

James Arthur

The Spirit of Freedom: Black Thought, Civic Virtue, and the Courage to Transform Democracy

Dayna L. Cunningham

Liberal Education, Intellectual Play, and the Virtues of Civil Discourse

Jed W. Atkins

Too Many Convictions, Too Little Civic Virtue

Greg Lukianoff

Chaplaincy for Democracy

Najeeba Syeed

INTERLUDE

Defining Moments

WE ASKED CAMPUS LEADERS:

What Are Signs of Hope? What Are Challenges to Overcome?

“The fusing of faculty expertise with courageous and curious young people is why universities remain the crown jewel of our nation.” —Sian L. Beilock, President, Dartmouth

PART II:

Defining Vocation

Civic Virtue among Engineers

Good Engineering | Erhardt Graeff

Fostering a Healthy Democratic Culture

Good Politics | David E. Campbell

A Framework for Civil Discourse Found in the Lines of a Prayer

Good Education | Cristy Guleserian

Know Thy Neighbor: How Community Rehabilitates our Assertions

Good Medicine | Lester Liao

Leadership through Listening

Good Leadership | Erica Brown

And more . . .

GOOD READS

Our authors’ recent book recommendations

SOUNDBITES

Civility, Courage & Conviction

POEM

The Second Coming

William Butler Yeats