Freedom of Expression.
Viewpoint Diversity.
Intellectual Humility.
Critical Thinking.
Director Mary Kate Cary
Look here for articles, studies, speeches, and other resources (handpicked by our director) that give you more information about our core values.
Mary Kate Cary and Jennifer Lawless are co-teaching an Election 2024 course. The professors fall on different sides of the aisle, but handle disagreement with mutual respect and curiosity.
​Second year Dalton Haydel said this of the course:
​“It’s great to be able to engage with these topics in a classroom setting that inspires a different level of intellectual curiosity you don’t get if you’re just following the news and reading about these topics by yourself.”
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Photo credit: Evan Kutsko
Professor Mary Kate Cary spoke at the UVA Parent's Leadership Council on the state of free speech on Grounds. She believes that UVA is headed in the right direction, but argues that we can certainly do better.
So why does free speech matter in the first place? It’s important to the institution of our democracy, and it’s important at the greatest public university in our democracy. Jefferson put it best when he said: “[T]his institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the
