Head-to-Head: A Meeting of Inspired Minds

When Conscience Calls: Portraits of Moral Courage

This event has been cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience. 

In this talk, Pulitzer Prize-nominated political scientist Kristen Renwick Monroe explores moral courage—what it is and why it’s important—through interviews she conducted with fifty individuals, including Holocaust survivors, schoolteachers, social activists, and civil-rights pioneers. It is through hearing their experiences of war, genocide, totalitarian abuse, and political cruelty that we are compelled to ask: What does a sensitive, humane person do when the world around him goes mad? What kind of person chooses to speak out rather than becoming cynical or bitter, or to retreat into the refuge of clan or tribe? Who stands up to hate? Answering such questions, Monroe says, requires an understanding not only of human psychology, but also of how we view ourselves in relation to others, and how these perceptions inform our moral choices. Monroe will be in conversation with Gerd Meyer, a professor emeritus of political science at Universität Tübingen.

In cooperation with the Evangelisches Bildungszentrum Hospitalhof Stuttgart and the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Zentrum Stuttgart. Generously supported by Dr. Dirk Ippen, Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, and Berthold Leibinger Stiftung GmbH