{"id":26379,"date":"2026-03-06T08:44:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=26379"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:19:14","slug":"civil-discourse-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/civil-discourse-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Class: Is Civil Discourse Still Possible in Politics?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Americans are struggling to talk across political divides, but a classroom at Kalamazoo College recently became a laboratory for civil discourse. Political Science<\/a> Associate Professor Justin Berry led what he describes as the best class he\u2019s had the privilege of teaching: a senior seminar on political polarization that challenged students not just to study the problem but to actively engage with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI teach a lot of the bigger kinds of classes\u2014intro classes\u2014on Congress and the presidency,\u201d Berry said. \u201cThis was my first opportunity to teach a seminar-oriented class, and I was excited about the chance to design something new. I picked a topic that I thought was pertinent to what they\u2019ve learned over their time in political science. It\u2019s a topic that\u2019s particularly relevant to the democracy they\u2019re participating in today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berry designed the course to give students the tools and experiences they need to model what he calls civil disagreement. Over the term, students examined the forces driving political polarization in the United States, from widening divides among elected officials and the public to the ways media and social media reinforce differences. They analyzed the most recent election cycle using various sources, and through dialogue and interviews, they practiced ways to communicate across these differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to give them the space and the tools to engage in difficult conversations,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted them to fundamentally disagree on ideas, concepts and values, and yet do so in a constructive, civil way, which I think is absent from our politics today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berry also noted the delicate balance between creating a sense of safety while fostering genuine disagreement in a course of this nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to engender an environment that\u2019s intellectually, politically and socially safe, but at the same time, I don\u2019t want it to be so safe that people aren\u2019t actually sharing their true beliefs,\u201d he said. \u201cIf everybody\u2019s feeling happy and comfortable, we\u2019re probably not engaging in a real political discussion because politics is conflictual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The class was able to achieve that balance, Berry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was enough overlap, commonality and trust in one another for us to engage in a meaningful conversation on a weekly basis,\u201d Berry said. “Yet there was also enough disagreement to lead to a meaningful exchange. A student would have a strong opinion, attitude or concept, and people would push back and give different perspectives. I heard students say time and again that in their discussions, they changed an attitude or an opinion toward something and I thought that was great. That\u2019s real conversation.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Student<\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\"Justin
Political Science Associate Professor Justin Berry teaches his polarization and civil discourse students.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Assignment That Changed Perspectives<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The centerpiece of the course was an intentional challenge: students had to interview someone with drastically different political views and write about their conversation. For many students, this meant stepping far outside their comfort zones. What they discovered often surprised them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyrica Gee \u201926 spoke with her uncle in Florida, whose politics differed sharply from her father\u2019s despite their similar upbringings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had gone home with some of the questions that we’ve been asking in class,\u201d she said. \u201cI talked to my dad about it and heard some of his answers about the way he was raised by his parents and their ideological lenses. Then, going into that interview with his brother, who ended up with a totally different political perspective, it was interesting to see how such a similar background landed them in these different situations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libby McFarlen \u201926 emphasized the humanizing effect of the face-to-face conversation she had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so much easier to see what people think and dismiss it when it\u2019s online,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re actually speaking to someone face-to-face, it personalizes those opinions. You realize that your opinions about people who disagree with you are attached to a real person, not to a statistic or someone on the other side of a phone screen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berry mentioned two outcomes from the project that were especially noteworthy to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had one student who interviewed her dad, and she valued the experience so much that she wants to do it with all of her family members and record the conversations to trace her family\u2019s political story,\u201d he said. \u201cI also had some students who assumed those they interviewed had very different beliefs, only to find false polarization once they had the conversation. Sometimes our assumptions are just false, and these things that we think divide us are our own misperceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Two
Reagan Woods ’26 (left) talks with Lyrica Gee ’26.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\"Student
Libby McFarlen ’26 leads a discussion.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Student-Led Learning Creates Community<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Reagan Woods \u201926, the seminar did more than explore polarization; it gave students practical ways to understand and challenge it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolarization in past political science courses has been an undergirding theme that doesn’t get talked about,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s almost like the boogeyman\u2014this unnamed force that drives our political differences and our current political economy. I like that we have a course where we can address it head-on and say, \u2018This is what this is. Let’s name it. Let’s talk about it. Let’s dissect it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seminar\u2019s structure was deliberately collaborative. Rather than traditional lectures, students led discussions, preparing activities and questions to engage their peers with weekly readings on topics such as media, geographic, and identity-based polarization. Woods described these readings as tools that could be kept in a tool belt, ready to use for class discussions, as well as outside the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have this tool belt full of theories, so what do we do with it now,\u201d she asked. \u201cDo we tackle polarization? Is this a problem we can fix? And while there is no one answer to that, I think it still got the gears turning. We can ask, \u2018Is polarization an inevitable problem?\u2019 Dr. Berry also mentioned that we’ve been more polarized before when we fought the Civil War and during the revolution, but we survived as a nation. This is not a hopeless cause, which I think was a hopeful message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollis Masterson ’26, who is pursuing majors in political science and history, appreciated how the seminar synthesized his undergraduate work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe interview assignment and leading class discussions were probably the most important to the classroom experience,\u201d he said. \u201cThey offered a great sense of community and understanding among us about where our politics lie, our backgrounds, and that variability of where we all come from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berry said the students embraced the student-led process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing I found really special about the class was how kind and gracious they were with one another,\u201d he said. \u201cIn today\u2019s world of social media and our phones, more often I\u2019ll walk into a classroom, and students won\u2019t be engaging with each other. But because they were developing the lesson plan, I would walk into class, and no one was on their phones\u2014they\u2019d be chatting about the reading they\u2019d done. They posted questions on social media to poll other K students about their attitudes toward topics like political violence, and then they brought up the results in class. We would talk about the different responses in the community, so the conversations didn\u2019t just end in the class; they kept flowing. That, for me, is a rare occurrence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The student-led approach created unexpected benefits. Masterson noted that the class brought together political science majors who had rarely shared a classroom before their senior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt became this slow development of a community,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish we could have started this cohort sooner, but having the opportunity to tie everything together as a group made this one of the most valuable experiences of my education.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Two
Hollis Masterson ’26 (left) talks with Dymytri Hayda ’26.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Reagan Woods talks with Libby McFarlen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From Skeptic to Scholar<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maddie Hanulcik \u201926 had an experience with the course that reflects the transformative power it had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was excited to take the senior seminar with my cohort, but to tell you the truth, I wasn\u2019t excited about the topic,\u201d she said. \u201cWe know that polarization exists, so I wondered whether we needed to make a whole class about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanulcik\u2019s perspective shifted drastically as the course progressed. What she initially dismissed as obvious became fascinating as she discovered the depth and breadth of polarization\u2019s impact. The transformation was so complete that Hanulcik chose polarization as the focus of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP). Her project examines why Generation Z has significantly lower faith in democracy than Generation X and how the media influences this decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf people don\u2019t believe in democracy, that\u2019s really scary,\u201d Hanulcik said. \u201cEven if a democracy is not functioning the way you want it to, it\u2019s important to change it for the better instead of just abandoning it. We need to have things like civil discourse and a civil society to keep democracy alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Two
Lilly Cleland ’26 (left) and Maddie Hanulcik ’26<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Senior Libby McFarlen (from left), Estrella Arana, Lilly Cleland, Maddie Hanulcik, Reagan Woods and Lyrica Gee talk with Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Challenging Assumptions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the course\u2019s most powerful lesson was how small the actual policy differences could be between opposing sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite the fact that ideologically and verbally we have all of these differences, when it comes down to policy, the difference between a moderate Republican and a moderate Democrat is maybe an inch wide,\u201d Gee said. \u201cThe difference between voting for one person and voting for the other is sometimes just about how much you dislike the other team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanulcik, a self-described libertarian, was one of only two non-left-leaning individuals in a class of 20. Initially, that made her feel uneasy, but as class conversations progressed, she found common ground she hadn\u2019t expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople started asking me why I felt the way I did, and after explaining, they said, \u2018Oh, I share almost every belief that you have. I just came to it in a different way in my head.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience helped Hanulcik recognize her own polarization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the class, I was polarized against people who were polarized,\u201d she said. \u201cBut then I realized I have to have conversations and help them understand the dangers of polarization and what it can lead to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She came to see polarization not as a simple left-right divide but as a problem created by extremes on both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost individuals here in the U.S. have a similar concept of good or bad,\u201d she said. \u201cDiscourse is driven by the extreme ends of both parties, and folks are slowly pulled from the middle. At what point do we lose that extreme dialogue and start communicating with folks in the middle?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McFarlen captured a common takeaway from the course: people on both sides of the aisle really aren\u2019t as different as they think; they are just shaped by different environments and experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean they are your enemies,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just means that they think differently, and it\u2019s important to try to understand why people think the way they do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gee reflected on how social media algorithms and sensational journalism exacerbate division for entertainment and profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re stoking this fire between the two sides to make it more entertaining,\u201d Gee said. \u201cThe entertainment aspect is making us grow further apart because we are sitting in our anger rather than in any critical thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Associate
Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\"Civil
Seniors Maddie Hanulcik, Reagan Woods, Lyrica Gee, Lilly Cleland, Estrella Arana and Libby McFarlen listen to Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Beyond the Classroom<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The lessons students learned have already begun influencing how they engage with politics beyond the classroom. McFarlen said the course changed how she views political campaigns, making her more attentive to how candidates target different audiences and frame their messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Masterson, the course sparked greater interest in state and local politics, where he said bipartisanship still occasionally exists. He\u2019s applying to master\u2019s programs at Tufts University, George Washington University, and three Australian universities, having fallen in love with Australian politics during study abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gee, who plans to pursue political journalism in Washington, D.C., sees the course as foundational to her future work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always want to look toward educating others and helping them get through really complex bureaucratic systems,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving some of these ideas in my head is going to be very helpful in understanding the complexities within people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanulcik plans to join the Peace Corps<\/a> after graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love being abroad,\u201d she said. \u201cI like moving all the time, and I like helping people in some way, shape or form. I want to live my life as a life of service.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Libby
Libby McFarlen ’26<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A Model for Democratic Citizenship<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Professor Berry, the course represents more than an academic exercise. It\u2019s about preparing students for democratic citizenship in a fractured era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have reached the point where we can no longer discuss politics with those with whom we disagree,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to provide students with a venue to grapple with difficult political questions and model how to engage in civil disagreement. It is a vital component of democratic citizenship, and it is not a skill we have effectively modeled for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results speak for themselves. What began as a required senior seminar became what multiple students described as their favorite class at K. In a moment defined by division, the course offered a glimmer of hope, proof that with curiosity, respect, and honesty, real conversation is not only possible; it\u2019s transformative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Estrella Arana ’26<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Americans are struggling to talk across political divides, but a classroom at Kalamazoo College recently became a laboratory for civil discourse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":26394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233,3,231],"tags":[39,96,38],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-26379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","category-news","category-students","tag-faculty","tag-political-science","tag-students"],"yoast_head":"\r\nCivil Discourse: K Class Experiments with How to Disagree<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Americans are struggling to talk across political divides, but a class at Kalamazoo College recently became a laboratory for civil discourse.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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