Gov. Cox to Join Moral Courage Champion Irshad Manji for Inaugural USU President's Forum on Conflict

LOGAN — Utah State University President Elizabeth Cantwell will host Irshad Manji, the globally renowned advocate of moral courage, along with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, as part of a new annual lecture series, the President’s Forum on Conflict and Conflict Resolution.

Prof. Manji and Gov. Cox will join President Cantwell for a conversation about how the Utah State community can “disagree better” and learn to have productive and meaningful conversations across ideological divides. Prof. Manji will deliver a keynote presentation following this conversation with the governor and President Cantwell. The event will take place from 2-3:30 p.m. on Feb. 5 in the Caine College of the Arts Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall.

"In today’s highly polarized political climate, where free speech and social issues sometimes seem at odds, it is essential that we learn to listen and be able to discuss charged issues in a productive and meaningful way,” President Cantwell said.

Through the new forum and lecture series, President Cantwell hopes to foster a culture of respect, open-minded inquiry, and thoughtful dialogue in the Aggie community, empowering participants to navigate conflicts and opportunities for academic and personal growth. The forum will include several speakers each year, renowned experts, practitioners and scholars who will focus on a conflict resolution theme or topic.

Prof. Manji is founder of the award-winning Moral Courage Project, which equips schools and businesses worldwide to turn heated issues into healthy relationships and innovative teamwork. A longtime professor of leadership at New York University, she now teaches with the Oxford Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights. Among the honors she has received is Oprah Winfrey’s Chutzpah Award for boldness. This trait shines through in Prof. Manji’s latest bestseller, “Don’t Label Me,” a book that the cultural icon Chris Rock has called “genius.”

Discussing “Don’t Label Me” with Newsweek, Prof. Manji addressed how shaming and blaming the “other side” causes resentment and retaliation, which only closes minds. If you want to open minds to your point of view, she said, it’s far more effective to work with “a basic law of human psychology” — namely, that “to be heard, you first have to hear.” In this way, Prof. Manji teaches, listening is a courageous act that serves the listener’s enlightened self-interest.

Gov. Cox, a USU alum (’98), has been in the national news lately pushing the National Governors Association bipartisan initiative to Disagree Better.Gov. Cox, NGA chair, is in the midst of participating in a series of bipartisan events with NGA Vice Chair Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

More information about the President's Forum and reservations are available at usu.edu/presidents-forum.