A Message from the Director: Talking Across Difference

September 12, 2025

Dear Friends of Eagleton, 

With its founding in 1956, Eagleton blazed a trail in higher education by linking the study of politics with the practice – supplying our students not just with an understanding of politics but with the skills and disposition of engaged citizenship.  

One of the skills we prioritize is engaging in discourse or talking across difference. As we know, a system of self-government such as ours can’t function if we can’t talk to each other. In recent years, months, and now even days, we’ve seen violence perpetrated against people from both sides of the political aisle because of their ideas – and this week that violence took place on a college campus. Now more than ever, if we’re going to “keep the republic,” we must teach and model respectful discourse – that’s what we do in our classrooms and across campus. 

Eagleton students and alums have witnessed this skill-building first-hand as they grapple with ideas and talk politics in our Drawing Room or over a meal in the Dining Room. Through the Rutgers Democracy Lab’s Talking Across Difference initiative, we’re extending this skill-building to faculty and students across the university. This fall, we’re piloting a Talking Across Difference Student Leaders program with a cohort of students designing and administering opportunities for students of all disciplines to come together and talk politics – building the capacity to disagree without being disagreeable. 

American democracy requires our full and active participation, and no one should lose their lives nor feel physically threatened for expressing their political views or engaging in politics. If we’re going to be a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” it also requires that we treat each other in word and deed like fellow citizens of this republic. 

Sincerely,

Elizabeth C. Matto 
Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics