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Dialogue Across Differences

This program aims to promote and model AU’s key values of respectful inquiry, critical thinking, active listening, and principled changemaking through a series of campus events, programs, and learning opportunities. The goal is to create and elevate a framework that engages the full AU community in intentional work to build the skills necessary to realize our vision of creating an inclusive AU community where ideas are exchanged freely and respectfully. By leveraging campus expertise and existing resources, this program has three core pillars:  

  1. Building the Foundation through relationship-building
  2. Building our Voices by enhancing our dialogue skills and
  3. Building our Community, by modeling dialogue across differences.

Exploring Disability Representation and Inclusive Commemoration: AU Hosts Event Honoring the 25th Anniversary of the Wheelchair Statue at the FDR Memorial

On March 31st, join the Office of Inclusive Excellence, in partnership with the FDR Memorial Legacy Committee and American University’s Department of History, for Disability Representation in America: FDR, the Fight for the Wheelchair Statue, and the Politics of Commemoration—an evening exploring history, disability rights, and inclusive excellence.

The program features a screening of the award-winning documentary short FDR: Great Abilities, followed by a panel discussion with the film’s narrator, the disability rights activist who helped lead the effort to install the wheelchair statue at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and distinguished AU scholars.

Together, they will examine how Franklin D. Roosevelt’s disability shaped his leadership during one of the most consequential periods in American history and recount the grassroots campaign to ensure that the president’s disability - and the broader experiences of disabled Americans - were included in our public memorial.

As part of the 250+ at American initiative marking the nation’s semi-quincentennial, this program invites the community to reflect on who is seen and heard in history, represented at national memorials, and how civic engagement can shape our future. The program highlights the continued importance of representation, accessibility, and inclusion and reflects American University’s commitment to advancing these values through engagement at the intersection of history, democracy, and civic life.

Please register to attend:

For those with an American University login: Disability Representation in America - Engage AU

For guests without an AU login: Disability Representation in America - Eventbrite