This fall, political scientist Diana Mutz delivered a lecture based on her book Hearing the Other Side. In her talk, which is both relevant to campus discourse and to political discourse in U.S. communities during this vital election year, Mutz discusses empirical research that examines how communities and individuals deal with political contestation and the presence of political diversity. Further, she explores how people living in an intimate community can talk about politics or other controversial subjects without creating the kinds of heated battles that make many members disengage. She asks what can be done to promote open discussion in which all voices are heard, without devolving into hurt feelings and damaged community ties.

Mutz is the Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication and director for the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches and conducts research on public opinion, political psychology, and mass political behavior, with a particular emphasis on political communication. In 2011, she received the Lifetime Career Achievement Award in Political Communication from the American Political Science Association. She was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.

Mutz's campus talk is the inaugural event of a Public Discourse & Democracy series sponsored by Swarthmore's Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, Center for Innovation and Leadership, and Aydelotte Foundation for the Advancement of the Liberal Arts.