UM-Dearborn FacilitatesDiscussions with “intellectual empathy” on Today’s Issues
- Nicole Coronel
- 12 hours ago
- 2 min read
Nicole Coronel
University of Michigan students and faculty held the 2026 Student Dialogue Conference at the Dearborn campus on Thursday, March 26th to apply “intellectual empathy” during hot topic discussions. UM-Dearborn and Henry Ford College student attendees split into separate groups to discuss personal experiences, challenges and potential solutions related to today’s issues in immigration and mental health.
Dr. Maureen Linker, Professor of Philosophy at UM-Dearborn and author of “Intellectual Empathy: Critical Thinking for Social Justice,” was the conference’s keynote speaker. Dr. Linker advocates the importance of upholding individual dignity to make space for respectful, productive conversations.
She spoke on the pitfalls of adversarial use of facts in the face of personal human experience, “Intellectual empathy doesn't mean we stop caring about truth. It means we learn to communicate truth in a way that someone could actually take in.” Dr. Linker supports active listening as a valuable tool to allow room for mutually beneficial coalitions to grow.
The event’s student leaders Yaritza Campos, Nicole Coronel, Edric Dias, Nila Hooper, Reagan Irey, and Kawther Solaiman, as well as Dr. Troy Murphy, UM-Dearborn Associate Professor of Communication, planned this event and its materials. They created discussion guides for each topic and facilitated the small group conversations. Inspired by models such as those used by the National Issues Forum, the guides offered tailored, student-centered perspectives to spark reflection and creative problem-solving.
Student leader Edric Dias also shared keen insights on why issue communication matters, “Deliberation isn't flashy, but it does engage with the real texture of human opinion and captures the real aim of the majority of civic discourse: to figure out how to move forward, together, not to crown a victor in a debate.”
An Action Summit will be held on April 16th to give students the opportunity to continue the momentum generated from the conference. At this follow-up event, participants will strategize solutions identified during the conference. This two-part structure is designed to not only empower students to voice their concerns, but also connect them with resources and strategies for action.
The 2026 Student Dialogue Conference was made possible by grant funding from UM-Ann Arbor’s Year of Democracy Grant Program. Dr. Troy Murphy and the student leaders were supported by and collaborated with the Co-Directors of the Office of Holistic Excellence, Associate Dean of Students Shareia Carter and Professor of Psychology Marie Waung, as well as UM-Dearborn Associate Professor of Political Science Lara Rusch and Henry Ford College Professor of Political Science Tony Perry.