The Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse offers an innovative undergraduate curriculum in the theory and practice of public discourse and deliberation. It strives to transform profoundly the culture of public discourse—among students in the College and the University at large—by not only teaching the values of free expression and inquiry ex cathedra, but allowing and empowering students to enact these values in the classrooms, dormitories, and many co-curricular spaces that are defining of the intellectual life of a university such as the University of Chicago.

Theory-driven as well as practice-oriented, the Parrhesia Program offers courses at multiple levels of instruction, such as on the history and theory of free discourse and rhetoric as well as on the principles and practices of public speaking, deliberation, and dialogue. The curriculum aims to develop communicative competence within a wide variety of communities, embed it in philosophical, political, and legal reflection, and contextualize it historically and culturally.

The curriculum follows a holistic approach to free speech and public discourse, recognizing that the classroom is only one space among many in which students exchange their ideas and views and that free expression must be practiced non scholae, sedvitae. Its structure is designed in concentric circles that radiate outward beyond the immediate space of the University.

For a list of Parrhesia courses, see our course offerings page.