UMiami Center for Humanities

Join us via Zoom or Facebook live on Thursday, September 19th from 7-8:30pm EST.
Berny and Geston both love their country, and each other. But for these dear friends, that’s where the agreement ends.
Friends since middle school, Berny and Geston are both children of Haitian political refugees who fled political instability that put their families at risk – with Geston’s parents arriving a little earlier than Berny’s. Despite their friendship and shared family immigration story, they have reached very different conclusions about politics and social issues in the United States today.
What Berny and Geston have found in the space and differences between them, we believe, has a lot to teach the country they both dearly love. In the lead-up to a contentious presidential election, it seemed like the perfect time to get to know these “frenemies” — and consider what we might be getting wrong about each other.
Berny is a former assistant state attorney named among “30 under 30 rising stars in Florida politics” and is now a Florida State Representative. Geston shares his message as a pastor and through song as part of the group Committed.
Learn more about the program online at http://tlh.villagesquare.us/event/frenemies/.
This program is part of the UNUM: Democracy Reignited series in partnership with Florida Humanities, which explores the past, present and future of the American idea — as it exists on paper, in the hearts of our people, and as it manifests in our lives.
About The Village Square: Founded 18 years ago in Tallahassee, The Village Square is building the town hall of the 21st century across societal divisions that are tearing communities apart.

As part of our fall 2023-spring 2024 FREE virtual lecture series, “UNUM: Democracy Reignited,” we’ll engage international expertise in service of quelling increasingly dangerous divisions here at home. Drawing on decades of experience addressing volatile disagreements surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Resetting the Table works to transform toxic polarization and destructive political conflict in the U.S.
More info: https://tlh.villagesquare.us/event/american-table/
Register: https://resettingthetable.eventbrite.com
We’ll be joined by Resetting the Table’s Co-Founding CEO, Melissa Weintraub, a veteran peacebuilder and social entrepreneur who has spent her career building transformative communication across divides, overcoming dehumanization and distrust, and working toward a shared society in both the U.S. and Israel-Palestine.
Resetting the Table brings wisdom and expertise gained in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to healing America’s deepening divides.
In the aftermath of the 2016 election — after years of focus on volatile disagreements surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — Resetting the Table launched an ambitious initiative forging communication and understanding across red/blue/purple divides in the U.S. They began with a Listening Campaign and series of dialogue forums in the heart of the Wisconsin and Iowa Rust Belt counties that swung Obama-to-Trump in the 2016 election, engaging and partnering with many “unusual suspects” for bridge-building work: from conventional dairy farmers to blue-collar workers to Evangelical pastors. Today, they offer training and forums targeting clergy, journalists, bridge-building practitioners, conservative and progressive activists, and more.
This program is presented live via Zoom and Facebook Live and made possible by Florida Humanities and National Endowment for the Humanities. We’re delighted to welcome streaming partners Braver Angels, McCourtney Institute for Democracy, National Institute for Civil Discourse, BridgeUSA, Listen First Project, USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, Common Ground Committee, Civic Health Project, TP&R podcast, YOUnify, Citizen Connect, Center for the Humanities at University of Miami, Tallahassee Democrat, WFSU Public Media, and Network for Responsible Public Policy.
About The Village Square: Founded 17 years ago in Tallahassee, The Village Square is building the town hall of the 21st century across societal divisions that are tearing communities apart.

Manny invites you to come visit us at the Humanities Hub at Shalala's Ballroom on the 3rd Floor!

Join us via Zoom or Facebook live on Tuesday, March 26th from 7-8:30pm EST. There’s certainly no shortage of people to blame long-distance for the tragically divisive state of our civic life in America. But if the project of human community ultimately begins where we act with respect and decency toward our fellow man, it’s possible that more of the power and responsibility for our societal fractures may be located right where we live our lives. Yet it’s easy to confuse plain old niceness with the deepest underpinnings of respect necessary to shepherd us through our divided times.
While our special guest Alexandra O. Hudson finds the challenges to civility today dire, she thinks they’re not new — and they’re most definitely not about being more polite. Lexi brings a deep and fresh appreciation for the wisdom of the ages to the moment we’re in, from Socrates and Confucius to more contemporary thinkers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Henry David Thoreau. She joins forces with these heavyweights, along with a practically encyclopedic knowledge of our understanding of civility through the ages. We hope you’ll join us for this inspiringly heartfelt and beautifully pitched argument that civility is not a luxury: it’s necessary for the survival and flourishing of our species.

ALEXANDRA O. HUDSON is a writer, popular speaker, and the founder of Civic Renaissance, a publication and intellectual community dedicated to beauty, goodness and truth. She contributes to Fox News, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, TIME Magazine, POLITICO Magazine, and Newsweek. She earned a master’s degree in public policy at the London School of Economics and is an adjunct professor at the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy. Her first book, The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves, was published in October 2023. She lives in Indianapolis, IN with her husband and children.

Learn more about the program online here.

This program is part of the UNUM: Democracy Reignited series in partnership with Florida Humanities, which explores the past, present and future of the American idea — as it exists on paper, in the hearts of our people, and as it manifests in our lives. Find the full series online here.

Join us via Zoom or Facebook live on Tuesday, February 13th from 7-8:30pm EST. What if, at a pinnacle of our civilization’s technological achievement, everything just broke — the institutions we’ve come to rely upon in navigating a modern complex world, the shared stories that hold a large and diverse democratic republic together, and even a common language through which to navigate the rising tide crisis. According to renowned social psychologist and author, Jonathan Haidt, this describes our current reality, one that he calls “After Babel.” In this new normal, we are scattered by a digital environment into feuding tribes that are governed by mob dynamics and driven by a minority of ideological outliers, made stupid at warp speed by group think, and — thanks to social media — armed with billions of metaphorical “dart guns” with which to immediately wound “the enemy” in ways that are hardly only metaphorical. What could go wrong?
Our very special guest, Dr. Jonathan Haidt, will delve into the profound impact of social media on democratic societies, dissecting the intricate web of challenges it poses to civic trust and civil discourse. Don’t miss this chance to hear from one of the foremost thought leaders of our time — one who has generously given his counsel to The Village Square, and countless efforts like ours — on this existential challenge of our time.
Dr. Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and professor of ethical leadership at NYU’s Stern School of Business. He’s the author of four books, two of which became New York Times–best sellers, including The Happiness Hypothesis, The Coddling of the American Mind, and The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. He’s been named a top 100 global thinker by Foreign Policy magazine, one of the world’s 65 best thinkers of the year by Prospect magazine and his four TED Talks have been viewed more than 7 million times.
Learn more about the program online here.
This program is part of the UNUM: Democracy Reignited series in partnership with Florida Humanities, which explores the past, present and future of the American idea — as it exists on paper, in the hearts of our people, and as it manifests in our lives. Find the full series online here.

“Whenever and wherever identity-based violence occurs, communication is weaponized.” - Over Zero
On Tuesday, November 14th at 7PM ET we will be joined via Zoom by the extraordinary Rachel Brown, the Founder of Over Zero—named in reference to the “zero sum game” that exists in sporting events, but becomes dangerous when it overtakes a society, as it has ours. Over Zero was founded to prevent identity-based violence that is on the rise around the world—and here at home. Rachel is one of the wisest, steadiest voices of our time in guiding us away from dangerous (but human) reactions, and toward calmer times.
Over Zero works in the United States, Central Europe, and East Africa—providing assistance to a diverse set of partners, including civil society leaders and organizations, funders and large institutions, and other leaders within society.
For the past decade, Rachel’s work has focused on using communication to prevent violent conflict. She is the author of Defusing Hate: A Strategic Communication Guide to Counteract Dangerous Speech and was a 2014 Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. Rachel previously founded and ran Sisi ni Amani-Kenya (SNA-K), a Kenyan NGO that pioneered new strategies to build local capacity for peacebuilding and civic engagement.
Learn more about the program online here.
This program is part of the UNUM: Democracy Reignited series in partnership with Florida Humanities, which explores the past, present and future of the American idea — as it exists on paper, in the hearts of our people, and as it manifests in our lives. Find the full series online here.

“Our national myths often exaggerate the role of the individual heroes and understate the importance of collective effort.” - Robert Putnam
Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett will be joining us Thursday, October 5th at 7 pm ET via Zoom and Facebook Live. Iconic political scientist Dr. Robert Putnam first sounded the alarm about a half century of declining social capital in "Bowling Alone", now he’s teaming up with his co-author of “The Upswing” Shaylyn Romney Garrett to convince us that we really should join a club. And that the fate of America depends on it.
Harvard professor Robert D. Putnam is America’s preeminent political scientist — and one of the most widely read and cited social scientists living today. Author of fourteen books, translated into twenty languages, his work focuses on asking big questions about American society. His groundbreaking “Bowling Alone” research — which demonstrated that levels of American community connections were in decline over the past half-century — rocketed Putnam to national fame in the late 1990s, earning him the moniker “the poet laureate of civil society.”

Shaylyn Romney Garrett is a passionate believer that everyday interactions are where we do the “heart work” required to transform our hyper-individualistic culture and reclaim the power of “We.” She is the co-author with Dr. Putnam of “The Upswing: How America Came Together A Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again,” which has been acclaimed as “a magnificent and visionary book,” and “a must-read for those who wonder how we can reclaim our nation’s promise.” She writes about her personal journey back to community on her blog and newsletter, Project Reconnect.

This program is part of the UNUM: Democracy Reignited series in partnership with Florida Humanities, which explores the past, present and future of the American idea — as it exists on paper, in the hearts of our people, and as it manifests in our lives.