Wofford College kicks off its new speaker series, “Defining or Dividing?: Contemporary Issues in American Culture,” with a talk by Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the Manhattan Institute.
Rufo will speak at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 18, in Leonard Auditorium. He will introduce and discuss topics mentioned in his book, “America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything.” The event is free and open to the public.
The new series is sponsored by the Office of the President and the Office for Civil Rights, Compliance and Community Initiatives.
Rufo is a New York Times bestselling author and a contributing editor of City Journal, where he explores a range of issues including critical race theory, gender ideology, homelessness, addiction and crime. Copies of his books will be available for purchase and signature.
Dr. Dwain Pruitt ’95, Wofford’s chief equity officer and vice president for community initiatives, hopes that Rufo’s talk, as well as the following talks in the series, will promote constructive conversations on campus about key issues in the media at any given time.
“I want to demonstrate that Wofford College is not afraid to have people who do not adhere to any particular ideological line,” Pruitt says. “We genuinely want people to engage in conversations about what matters in the United States. That is why, to launch the series, we have invited a noted critic of DEI initiatives, as the DEI office.”
Pruitt’s goal for the series is to facilitate open conversations on campus about current topics in politics and social justice. He plans to bring in numerous speakers with a variety of opinions and differing political leanings.
“I want for us to model the idea that people can have important conversations in an academic environment where people disagree, but still can have those conversations,” Pruitt says. “I would like for our office to be a central player in engagement with the important issues of the day surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Topics Pruitt would like to bring speakers to cover in the series’ future include the Israel-Palestine conflict, immigration, and gender and sexuality.
The next speaker in the series is author Seth David Radwell, who will discuss his award-winning 2021 book “American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing Our Nation.” Radwell will speak at 6 p.m. on Feb. 5.