Join us in the living room.
Launched in Fall 2023, the primary purpose of the Campus Living Room project is to bring together community members across identities, experiences, areas of expertise, and ideologies to discuss critical societal and college issues through multiple lenses.
Why a "living room"?
The living room is often thought of as the most central room in the home, a place of gathering, where one does most of their day-to-day “living”, socializing, and community building. Sometimes living rooms are more informal spaces and other times they are quite formal. The living room has also traditionally been a place where people gather with family and guests to listen to news, important announcements, key world events, etc on radios and TVs and to process what is happening from their different vantage points. They are places that are intended to feel comfortable and safe and yet have unwritten rules promoting controversy with civility, reparation of harm, and an understanding of and empathy toward the human condition. In the living room, people gather, share their perspectives, listen to the experiences of others, disagree with one another, offer their diverse truths, creatively problem-solve, and dream together.
The Muhlenberg College Campus Living Room Project seeks to offer this type of “living room” experience on campus both formally and informally for community members to engage, dialog, listen and learn across differences. We seek to tackle tough topics impacting our community, our nation and our world and to do so from myriad perspectives.
Conversations to expect
- Living Room Conversations: Scheduled events/discussions led by faculty/staff/student groups on topic-driven conversations across differences.
- Meet Us in The Living Room: Following large lectures/events on campus, meet us in the living room for a follow-up dialog to dig deeper and reflect on the presented information through interpersonal dialog.
- Pop Up Events: Meetings to encourage dialog as important issues emerge on campus that will benefit from dialog across differences.
