Split Wide Open: The Polarisation of America | JLF Colorado 2023

Split Wide Open: The Polarisation of America | David W. McIvor, Ruchira Gupta, Chika Unigwe, Pariksith Singh and Pedro Silva in conversation
The United States is split apart by conflicting ideologies, philosophies, and ways of life. This political polarization, symptomatic of a breakdown in communication, and the vast and growing gap between liberals and conservatives, republicans and democrats, turns conversations and debates into showdowns. A session that searches the political spectrum to make sense of a society which is split wide open.
David W. McIvor works on contemporary political theory and democratic theory with a particular focus on critical theory, psychoanalytic theory, and deliberative democratic theory and practice. He has published articles in a variety of scholarly journals including Political Theory, The James Baldwin Review, Constellations, Polity, and Contemporary Political Theory. McIvor is the author of Mourning in America: Race and the Politics of Loss and teaches courses in political theory at both the graduate and undergraduate level.
Ruchira Gupta is an Emmy-winning documentarian, a life-long activist, and author of the new novel I Kick and I Fly. Her debut is based on the true lives of girls she helped through the anti-sex-trafficking NGO Apne Aap. She has co-written As if Women Matter with Gloria Steinem. She dreams of a world in which no child is bought6 or sold.
Chika Unigwe was born and raised in Nigeria. Widely anthologized and translated, her latest novel, The Middle Daughter, has been longlisted for the New American Voices Award. Unigwe is a professor of creative writing at Georgia College, Milledgeville, Georgia.
Pariksith Singh is a poet, writer, entrepreneur, and healer. His life, work, and literature are uniquely personalized expressions of his spiritual journey and unfolding realization. One can sense a constant striving towards deeper and wider truth in all that he is and does.
Singh’s creativity spans from literature, philosophy, and science to politics, business, and entrepreneurship. He writes widely on matters that he feels are relevant to contemporary human civilization, and is concerned above all about the articulation of the deeper and the wider.
Pedro Silva, director of engagement of YOUnify, works to reduce polarization and cultural divisions in service of accelerating solutions to the key challenges of our time. Silva has served the Boulder community as a pastor, poet, public speaker, and conversation facilitator on subjects such as politics, race, and homelessness.
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