An evening with Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn and Dhananjay Jagannathan
Effort involves sacrifice, discomfort, ambiguity, and failure—not to mention the likelihood of disappointment and error. Why, then, do we persist in such labors? When artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and other technologies offer us an easy way out, why try? Why continue to pursue what we believe to be worthwhile and good the hard way, without the guarantee of success?
Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn is a professor of history in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Her books include Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living (2020); and Race Experts: How Sensitivity Training, Interracial Etiquette, and New Age Therapy Hijacked the Civil Rights Revolution (2001).
Dhananjay Jagannathan is a writer and an academic whose essays on education, politics, music, and literature have appeared in Commonweal, Plough Quarterly, Comment, and Public Discourse. His first book, Aristotle’s Practical Epistemology, was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. His next book, Culture as Conversation, on cultural identity and cultural transgression, will be published by Penguin Press in 2026.
About the Roots: Dialogues for the Common Good series:
What is the spark of human cooperation? How does beauty bind its beholders? Why do we read, write, and seek the truth together—even if our search never ends?
The current cultural moment is marked by polarization, distrust, and a breakdown in civil discourse, which combine to limit opportunities for the kind of meaningful conversations vital to flourishing human relationships and the health of society. But even amid the soundbite-and-spectacle quality of public discourse today, we perceive a latent desire for depth, dialogue, and critical thinking. We believe we can contribute to meeting this desire, both by hosting intelligent exchanges on fundamental questions with renowned speakers and by challenging our audiences to practice a posture of open-minded dialogue while they participate in these convenings.
This project, a collaboration between Columbia’s Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary and Commonweal, convenes a range of thinkers for a series of public discussions grounded in philosophy, theology, and the humanities. The aim is not to defend specific positions or provide inarguable conclusions. Instead we seek to invite reflection, provoke conversation, and inspire action—a mode of meeting the political, moral, and existential challenges of our time.