Writing Program

Reminder: Fall 2026 Course Registration Will Take Place in Workday!

Please Speak with Your Primary Advisor BEFORE Your Registration Appointment Time to Get the Hold Released on Your Account. Information and Trainings on Student Registration in Workday Are Found Here: https://wakeday.wfu.edu/workday-student-support-for-students/.

Read through our current course offerings for Fall 2026 below.

Please note that the course information below is subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, please reference WRI course sections in Workday. Course sections for Fall 2026 will be published in Workday on Friday, March 13, 2026.

WRI 109, WRI 110, and WRI 111

WRI 109 A/B: Writing Seminar, Part 1: How Writing is Judged
Prof. Jeremy Levine
WRI 110-A: TR 12:00-12:50pm
WRI 110-B: TR 1:00-1:50pm
What is “good writing”? You’ve probably had to change your definition of “good writing” depending on different situations that you’ve been in. Different teachers want different types of writing, but college application readers want a whole other thing entirely, while standardized tests seem to want something else. Outside of school, text messages, social media posts, song lyrics, and diary entries all have their own definitions of “good writing.” So, is there even one such thing as “good writing”?

This writing seminar will focus on the quality judgments that writers face — where they come from (institutionally, socially, economically), and how they shape our writing. We’re trying to understand how readers perceive writing so that you can make informed decisions about how you want to come across to them.

We’ll start by studying how school writing is judged (meaning, graded) to uncover how our writing habits, strategies, and mindsets are informed by those judgments; this can help us develop broader, more flexible approaches to writing. Then, we’ll examine different forms of writing judgment in our culture: how different social groups judge each other’s writing and how technology determines which writing should spread to wider audiences.

WRI 109 C: Writing Seminar, Part 1: Monstruous Texts
Prof. Franziska Tsufim
WRI 109-C: TR 10:00-10:50am
Do you remember the last time you watched a horror, sci-fi, or action movie? In all likelihood a monster showed up at some point on the screen. Think Pennywise from It or Godzilla. Of course, literature is filled with monsters, too: Frankenstein’s creature, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, tricksters and shapeshifters are only a few examples.

Let’s pause for a moment and reflect… What is it that draws people to these monster figures? Could it be the kick of an adrenaline rush, or maybe human curiosity that pulls us towards terror? Have you ever considered that it may also be the monster’s agency? After all, monsters defy societal norms, challenge cultural practices, and refuse containment.  And, if you are honest, isn’t that what makes them compelling? 

In this course, we will study monsters and texts that behave “monstrously.” The texts we will encounter will range from Frankenstein to the Godzilla franchise, to trickster and fairy tales, to AI-generated poetry. Yet many of these texts not only portray monsters but are also monstrous in another sense: they may not have a clearly identifiable author; or they may be hybrid patchwork creations that mix genres or modes of communication in unexpected ways. By studying “monstrous” texts, we will learn how writers can use a text’s genre, its form and its medium to purposefully unsettle and surprise their audience.  In short, we will ask “What makes a text monstrous? And to what rhetorical effect?” 

If you enroll in this course, you will complete two projects that involve analysis, multimodal composing, and textual experimentation (including in our campus makerspace), inviting you to unleash your own “monstrous” rhetorical agency as an emerging college-level communicator.

WRI 109 D/E: Writing Seminar, Part 1: The Language of Writing
Prof. Jon Smart
WRI 109-D: MW 10:00-10:50am
WRI 109-E: MW 11:00-11:50am
In this course we explore how humans use language as the building blocks of written communication. Humans write more now than they ever have, and new emergent forms of writing – from informal, highly interactive writing to texts authored by artificial intelligence – pervade our daily lives. Through this course, students will consider how we make choices about the language we use in both traditional and emergent forms of writing. We will read and discuss how the language we use when we speak and write connects to our own identities and the communities we participate in. We’ll also examine, through discussion and hands-on tasks, how writing adapts and re-invents itself for new technologies and genres. The course teaches you to use rhetorical principles to analyze texts and to develop your own iterative writing processes.

WRI 109 F/G: Writing Seminar, Part 1: On Your Own Terms
Prof. Eric Ekstrand
WRI 109-F: WF 9:00-9:50am
WRI 109-G: WF 10:00-10:50am
You made it! You got into college, and goodness was that hard. Now, what is this place all about? As you begin your college coursework, maybe you will sense that there are unstated new assumptions being made about your learning and writing that are different from those made in your schooling up to this point (and likely different from those made outside of school—in your home and between your friends). You know the game has changed, but maybe you don’t know what the new rules are. In this class, through regular writing, reading, and speaking, we will try to make plain the various community values inherent to those very same literacy and language practices. We think about all the different ways people use English, how you and your friends and family use English, how college professors and academics use English, how English is used in workplaces. In the first half of the semester you will write a memoir essay about your language history, and in the second half you will work with other student researchers in the class to examine the language practices of an on-campus community and write a research report on your findings. By doing all these things, you will be better equipped to both adopt and challenge new uses of English on our own terms as you join new communities at college, both in and out of the classroom.

WRI 109 H/I: Writing Seminar, Part 1: Writing Like “Animals”: Reimagining the Environment
Prof. Sebastián Terneus
WRI 109-H: MW 10:00-10:50am
WRI 109-I: MW 11:00-11:50am
What can the trees on campus teach us about sharing and survival? How are forever chemicals impacting the animals you love or eat? Where did all the bison go that used to live in Winston-Salem? Can we use AI to “talk” to the birds outside your dorm?  Do you want to reconnect with the environment and help save it?

In this course, we will explore these questions by examining texts that invite us to see the world through the perspectives of nonhuman animals. Rather than approaching climate change, pollution, and sustainability solely from a human point of view, we will analyze traditional essays alongside documentaries, environmental writing, trail signs, bird calls, and even tree bark to better understand our rapidly changing ecosystem.

Your learning will extend beyond the classroom as we go birdwatching, identify and study campus trees, and observe urban wildlife. Drawing from research and field experiences, you will compose analytical and argumentative essays as well as multimodal projects designed to inform and engage public audiences about environmental issues.

By the end of the semester, you’ll understand writing not as a purely human act, but as a practice that connects species, reveals interdependence, and shapes how we imagine shared survival.

WRI 109 J/K: Writing Seminar, Part 1: Rhetorics of Conversion
Prof. Hannah Harrison
WRI 109-J: TR 3:00-3:50pm
WRI 109-K: TR 4:00-4:50pm
“Time makes more converts than reason.” —Thomas Paine, Philadelphia, 1776

“Force may make hypocrites, but it can never make converts.” –William Penn, Tower of London, 1670

What is “conversion?” How does it happen? Does it happen? And if so, what does the experience of conversion teach us? In this course, we will explore “conversion” as a social and personal process, moving beyond the strictly religious to see how the language of spiritual transformation has been co-opted to describe secular identity shifts. We will examine how the rhetoric of “the convert” is currently used to frame everything from political radicalization to the fervor of brand loyalty and lifestyle overhauls. We’ll consider what we mean when we say we’ve “been converted” and how we communicate that experience to others. We’ll ask questions about the motivations for these shifts, what “counts” as conversion, and how we “prove” authenticity. In doing so, you’ll both learn to write and write to learn, using conversion as a topical theme.

Grounded in threshold concepts from Writing Studies—including theories of rhetoric, discourse, and genre—you’ll practice university-level reading, thinking, and writing skills and strategies. Coursework will be oriented around increasing rhetorical awareness, applying theoretical concepts to practical strategies for research and writing, and developing effective project management skills using the psychology of learning (metacognition, growth mindset, etc.). Contemporary and historical artifacts related to “conversion”—from religious conversion narratives to commercial product testimonials—will be explored based on students’ individual academic, professional, and personal interests. Students will practice exercises, write drafts, conduct feedback reviews, revise materials, and submit original works of analysis, summary, argumentation, and reflection. These materials will ultimately be compiled into at least one Portfolio of representative work for holistic evaluation and assessment.

WRI 109 L/M: Writing Seminar, Part 1: Restoring Histories: Public Memory and Social Change
Prof. Jen Conlon
WRI 109-L: MW 3:00-3:50pm
WRI 109-M: MW 4:00-4:50pm
“I do not remember the days
before America — I do not remember the days
when we were all here.”
–Natalie Diaz, “American Arithmetic”

In this course, we will become detectives of the past and advocates for the future.  According to an analysis by The New York Times, “more than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down” in the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Many of the pages housed critical information pertaining to vaccines, scientific research, hate crimes, and LGBTQ+ people. State department websites have changed “LGBTQ” to just “LGB,” and have removed pages that use the words “transgender” or “inclusion.” We will explore the effects censorship has on our histories and futures, especially for marginalized folks.

We will interrogate the dominant narratives of U.S. history and uncover the narratives which have been overlooked or erased through violence. We will study the ways that stories we write about the past shape our futures. As James Baldwin once said, “History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” In order to reveal the histories we carry, we will read and write and revise with attention to form and context, to challenge systems of power including patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, whiteness, cisgenderism, and heteronormativity. 

Our coursework will include analysis, argument, and storytelling that examines the relationship between public memory and social movements in the U.S. Readings will include historical texts, memoirs, essays, poetry, and speculative fiction. By the end of the semester, you will become active participants in imagining and advocating for more inclusive, accurate, and transformative representations of history.

WRI 109 N: Writing Seminar, Part 1: The Language of Health, Wellness, and Self-Care
Prof. Abby Bryan
WRI 109-N: TR 1:00-1:50pm
What does it mean to be well? Every day we are confronted with messages prompting us to care for our health and well-being. Influencers and celebrities promote the latest self-care trends on TikTok and Instagram, healthcare providers flood our inboxes with tips for “being well,” and big-box stores advertise an endless array of products promising to make us fitter, healthier, and happier. In this class, we will analyze how a variety of everyday wellness messages—from food blogs and meditation apps to university initiatives and wearable fitness technologies—shape how we think about health and well-being, often in subtle and even invisible ways.

Together we’ll ask: What do these everyday wellness messages suggest about what it means to be healthy and well? What assumptions do such messages make about bodies, normalcy, personal responsibility, and care? And, perhaps most importantly, how do these messages shape our own behaviors and influence how we care for ourselves and others? As we explore these questions, we’ll develop a set of analytical tools that will strengthen our skills as writers, researchers, and rhetors and enable us to engage critically with our contemporary wellness culture.

WRI 110 A: Writing Seminar, Part 2: The Writing Mind, Part 2
Prof. Erin Branch
WRI 110-A: MW 12:00-12:50pm
Thinkers have debated for centuries how and why we write–and what writing is good for. In fact, Socrates himself thought writing was nothing more than a useful reminder. While we live in a very different technological and philosophical moment, what remains true is that writing practices and community norms are mutually constitutive: meaning that we can learn a lot about what a group (of writers, thinkers, researchers, activists, etc.) think and value by studying how they communicate. 

This course will build on the foundational writing knowledge built in WRI 109 to explore how writing works in specific contexts and communities. Students will explore the literacy practices of communities they belong to and value. They will also consider the role that generative artificial intelligence (LLMs like ChatGPT) may play in shaping these practices. Projects may include short responses, analytical essays, and a researched argumentative essay. 

WRI 111 A: Writing Seminar: Writing as Technology
Prof. Ryan Shirey
WRI 111-A: MWF 11:00-11:50
When we hear the word “technology,” we often think of smartphones, social media, or AI. But over 5,000 years ago, the technology that was transforming the world was writing. One of the foundational tools for many civilizations, writing has shaped how we live and think for so long that it has almost become invisible to us as a technology. Writing technology enabled the extension of human cognition and memory, the communication of complex ideas and creative stories across time and distance, the codification of rules and laws for commerce and social organization, and the expression and transmission in material forms of faith and feeling.

In this course, we’ll explore how writing is not just an academic skill but a powerful tool for organizing knowledge, shaping ideas, and influencing others. We will examine its history, its relationship to other tools and technologies (from pencils to generative AI), and the habits that make writing a flexible, empowering practice in both academic and other contexts.

Through readings from history, philosophy, journalism, and contemporary scholarship, you’ll learn to analyze how writing works and how it evolves. You’ll also apply these techniques to understand your own writing process and learn how to approach your writing, and that of your peers, with a careful, critical eye. From low-stakes exploratory and reflective writing to more formal researched writing rooted in argument and analysis, the work you produce in this course will aim at helping you develop your voice and expand your rhetorical range. By the end of the course, you’ll understand writing not just as an academic requirement, but as a versatile tool for thinking and communicating in college and beyond.

WRI 111 B: Writing Seminar: Your Brain on Writing
Prof. Erin Branch
WRI 111-A: MWF 11:00-11:50
In late 2022, the arrival of ChatGPT struck fear in the hearts of teachers everywhere and prompted journalists and pundits to proclaim the death of the essay. While the full impact of this new tool (and others like it) remains to be seen, what is known is that thinkers have debated for centuries how and why we write–and what writing is good for. In fact, Socrates himself thought writing was nothing more than a useful reminder. 

But his view runs directly counter to what many writing scholars know today, which is that writing is one way to figure out what we think. Writing is not, despite romantic ideals to the contrary, the simple transcription of clear and distinct ideas from brain to page (or screen). 

Ideas and arguments develop through the process of writing itself, messy as that might be. As Anne Carson writes, writing is about “the struggle to drag a thought over from the mush of the unconscious into some kind of grammar, syntax, human sense; every attempt means starting over with language, starting over with accuracy.” 

This course will investigate ideas about what exactly IS happening in our brains when we write, and how modern technology intersects with those processes. We’ll study arguments about invention and the writing process from various fields as we develop our own protocols for capturing, articulating, and analyzing writing processes. Readings may include philosophical arguments, academic research articles, contemporary journalism, and personal essays; writing projects include personal narratives, analytical essays, researched arguments, and others.

WRI 111 C/D/E: Writing Seminar: Why Are You Here? Finding Your Place Through Writing
Prof. Keri Epps
WRI 111-C: WF 9:30-10:45
WRI 111-D: WF 2:00-3:15
WRI 111-E: WF 3:30-4:45
Why are you here?

Really think about it. What brought you to Wake Forest University? To this Writing 111 class? Why do you want to be in this place, here and now (if you do), and where do you want to go?

This section of WRI 111 explores this provocative question from multiple angles, encouraging you to consider your roles and places in the university, in your prospective professional careers, in your hometowns, and in your current community of Winston-Salem. One possible angle is to examine the physical and material places you occupy, and another is to think about the subject positions you hold and perform as you try to find your “place” in any number of rhetorical situations.

To arrive at some possible answers, we will use writing as a mode of self-discovery, acceptance, and engagement. We will participate in creative writing processes, read texts about genre and rhetoric, and write across a range of genres for various real and intended audiences. By the end of the semester, you will have completed three major writing assignments (a rhetorical analysis of your college-prep writing, a genre/discourse community report, and a “place-based” personal narrative), engaged in multiple rounds of workshopping and revisions, and composed a final portfolio that demonstrates your enhanced rhetorical skills and the beginnings of your responses to finding and (re)imagining your place.

WRI 111 F/G: Writing Seminar: Rhetoric in the Wild
Prof. Danielle Koupf
WRI 111-F: TR 8:00-9:15
WRI 111-G: TR 9:30-10:45
“People use rhetoric every day for a wide variety of purposes: to persuade, move, entertain, teach, plead, divide, portray, protest, amuse, complain, inspire, empathize, debate, inquire, charm, and to do just about anything one person can communicate to others with words and other symbols, sounds, or images.” –David Blakesley

Perhaps you remember learning something about rhetoric in high school, such as the three major appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos). Or maybe you recall seeing the term rhetoric in the news lately, particularly in political contexts. You may have come to associate rhetoric with manipulation or even deceit. Yet rhetoric is actually all around us, functioning in a variety of ways. This section of WRI 111 will introduce you to rhetoric as a broad and capacious term and tool. Rhetoric does more than persuade, and it doesn’t always manipulate: it can help us communicate ideas, it can challenge beliefs, it can create unity or division among groups of people, and it can operate through language, visuals, sounds, gestures, and designs. In fact, you encounter rhetoric every day through social media posts, advertisements, political speeches, bulletin boards, podcasts, memes, historical monuments, menus, video games, and product reviews, to name just some examples.

Understanding rhetoric can help us both analyze texts and produce them. In this course, we will develop a robust understanding of rhetoric and an appreciation for how it enters our daily lives, especially life on Wake Forest’s campus. In addition to examining written texts, we will study multimodal productions, such as videos, posters, flyers, physical spaces, and podcasts. Throughout the semester, you will develop a better awareness of how rhetoric influences your beliefs, behaviors, and habits. Along the way, you will create a portfolio of writing that has been carefully drafted, revised, and refined. You will develop close relationships with your classmates through frequent peer feedback and collaboration, and you will learn to embrace a recursive writing process with many opportunities for brainstorming, drafting, and revision.

WRI 111 H: Writing Seminar: Writing as Public Action
Prof. Alisa Russell
WRI 111-H: MWF 12:00-12:50
Have you found that you’re deeply passionate about an ideal, a stance, a movement, or an issue? You want to do something — engage with others, open a new line of thinking, and/or bring about change for your community. But how do you get in on the conversation? How do you reach a variety of audiences? This course focuses on a variety of written genres that allow one to engage and shape public conversations.

In the first half of the course, we will focus on learning the language of GENRE — the way various elements of writing (e.g., author/audience, main claims/stakes, evidence/appeals, organization/formatting, tone/style) come together in patterned ways to achieve particular actions in the world. No matter your major or career goals, writing will be part of your regular routine because it is how we record, communicate, argue, inform, understand, and share ideas across time and space. In this course, you will gain the analytical language and tools to figure out any new genre you may encounter in the future. Even more, we will keep a critical eye on these genres (e.g., who gets included and excluded? what values do they emphasize?), and we will even play with the boundaries of genre to investigate their flexibility.

In the second half of the course, we will use our new knowledge of genre to write about the public issues we care about most. You will choose which genres would best fulfill your chosen purpose and reach your chosen audiences in order to accomplish the public actions that will bring about positive change in your communities. We will compose genres across modes and mediums, and we will practice shifting rhetorical strategies from genre to genre to build our flexibility. We will especially consider how composing is rather messy: We’ll explore a number of writing processes and strategies, and you can experiment with which ones work for you, including ChatGPT. We’ll also find that writing is an inherently social activity; you will use your peers (and me) as resources for feedback and growth in your writing skills as part of your process.

WRI 111 I/J: Writing Seminar: Rhetorics of Music
Prof. Carter Smith
WRI 111-I: TR 8:00-9:15
WRI 111-J: TR 9:30-10:45
Have you debated with a friend the merits of a particular song? Have you sought out an interview with one of your favorite artists or followed a music blog? This seminar considers the ways in which arguments about music—the intentions of music makers, the methods used to realize them, and the way that listeners register their effects—are integral to the meanings that we find in it. Reading a variety of literary and musicological texts, we will consider what we “get” from music and also how we get it, as its audience and as consumers. Our readings and conversations on these matters will allow us to analyze the situatedness of musical texts, and texts about those texts, with the goal of entering into the conversation with our own effective writing.

WRI 111 K/L/M: Writing Seminar: Noticing What You Notice
Prof. Elena Makarion
WRI 111-K: TR 12:30-1:45
WRI 111-L: TR 3:30-4:45
WRI 111-M: TR 5:00-6:15
This first-year writing course, “Noticing What You Notice,” will invite you to engage with writing as a practice of deep listening: to texts, to yourself, and to the physical world around you. Based on Mary Oliver’s conviction that “attention is the beginning of devotion,” you will practice forms of attentiveness, such as: using texts as “mirrors” to examine your own responses, biases, and values; observing your physical surroundings through sensory details; and listening across differences by attending to contexts, histories, and dominant narratives.

As a way of engaging these ideas, you will keep a writing notebook of weekly observational entries, reflective and creative exercises, and emulations of authors like Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, and Joan Didion. You will discover that strong writing follows not from some “universal” formula but rather from noticing what moves, irks, or bores you in your reading and personal life. Through habits of observation and rhetorical listening, you will strengthen your capacity for self-reflection and agency in your writing choices. In addition to the reflective entries, you will present at a symposium, complete writing workshops, conduct research, compile an annotated bibliography, compose a synthesis essay, and contribute to our seminar-style class discussions.

WRI 111 N: Writing Seminar: How Writing is Judged
Prof. Jeremy Levine
WRI 111-N: TR 2:00-3:15pm
What is “good writing”? You’ve probably had to change your definition of “good writing” depending on different situations that you’ve been in. Different teachers want different types of writing, but college application readers want a whole other thing entirely, while standardized tests seem to want something else. Outside of school, text messages, social media posts, song lyrics, and diary entries all have their own definitions of “good writing.” So, is there even one such thing as “good writing”? What does it mean to be a “good writer”?

This writing seminar will focus on the quality judgments that writers face, where they come from (institutionally, socially, economically), and how they shape our writing. We’re trying to understand how readers perceive writing so that you can make informed decisions about how you want to come across to them.

We’ll start by studying how school writing is judged (meaning, graded) to uncover how our writing habits, strategies, and mindsets are informed by those judgments; this can help us develop broader, more flexible approaches to writing. Then, we’ll examine different forms of writing judgment in our culture: how different social groups judge each other’s writing and how technology determines which writing should spread to wider audiences. We’ll wrap up the semester with a research project on a writing assessment topic of your choice.

WRI 111 O/P: Writing Seminar: Do-It-Yourself?! Rhetorics of Making, Hacking, and Creating
Prof. Franziska Tsufim
WRI 111-O: TR 12:30-1:45
WRI 111-P: TR 2:00-3:15
“Weaving an argument,” “constructing a thesis,” “sculpting an essay,” “cooking up a story,” “forging a text,” our everyday language is filled with metaphors that compare writing with handicrafts. From references to fiber arts, to blacksmithing, to culinary endeavors, writing is cast as a process of creation that requires patience and perseverance. If you have ever picked up a needle or hammer for a sewing or woodworking project, you know as much: Rome was not built in a day. And neither should be your next essay.

In this writing class, we will dig deep into this analogy and explore it both for its emphasis on process and for what it tells us about originality. After all, crafters do not shop for mass-produced commodities such as clothing, furniture, or dinnerware but “do it themselves” creating one-of-a-kind pieces on the way. And yet, craftspeople rely on common techniques and crafting traditions. Put differently, why should a potter reinvent the wheel every time they throw on the wheel? Returning to our analogy, how do originality and conventionality go together both in crafting and writing? When do we obey the rules and when should rules be broken? Is a cup still a cup without a handle? Probably. But what about when it misses a bottom? Similarly, when do writers have to follow the rules to serve their audiences, and when should they push back against established conventions while still reaching their readers? And what is the purpose of such rule breaking?

As we will explore those connections, we will create, craft and write in both physical and digital spaces: Be prepared to hone a new skill and make something in our campus makerspace, learn to research and write for Wikipedia, and create a zine, a small self-published, multimodal booklet. Just one more note before we dive in, you do not need to be a “crafty” person to do well in this class, but you should be curious about learning new things and getting out of your comfort zone. Clay, glue and ink: Getting your hands dirty will, no doubt, be part of the process.

WRI 111 Q/R: Writing Seminar: Mindful Nation
Prof. Elisabeth Whitehead
WRI 111-Q: MWF 10:00-10:50
WRI 111-R: MWF 11:00-11:50
Morris Graves defines contemplation as “stilling the surfaces of the mind and letting the inner surfaces bloom.”  In this course we will practice stilling the mind’s surface through exercises of concentration, listening, and reflection, and from this place of contemplative inquiry we will investigate social issues relevant to us in contemporary society. By practicing awareness and attention (awareness of ourselves, each other, our writing, and the world we live in) we will begin to cultivate the space we need as writers, as well as the qualities of listening, observation, and empathy to foster ethical communication and advocacy.  With a focus on strengthening critical reading, writing, thinking, and listening skills, we will study a variety of texts including essays, memoirs, film, a graphic novel, and poetry in order to encounter a wide range of social and cultural issues that occupy our attention today.

This course will be a conversation about the issues themselves but also the ways in which we know, understand, speak, and write about these issues. By approaching a variety of controversies in the spirit of mindfulness, and with a willingness “to face whatever the reality of a situation may be” (The Dalai Lama) we will delve into the complexities of these contemporary social concerns, to understand and recognize these issues not as simple pro/con boxes but as spectrums of belief with a multitude of positions and players involved.  We will work to understand how we fit into these conversations, and how we can engage in genuine dialogue, even with those who might disagree with us.  Contemplative inquiry will allow us to move beyond facile distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’–distinctions so easily drawn in contentious debates. By nurturing mindfulness, we will be able to open up authentic modes of communication between opposing views, thereby realizing the radical potential for change inherent in meditative practices.