Episode 58
“The niche I provide is the rumination, the consideration of these elements and trying to build out a set of aptitudes, a set of hard skills and soft skills, and comfort level with entering into really, really difficult circumstances. Places where even the simple saying of a controversial issue may cause a fear response.
[The courses I teach] put you in a position where you can enter a difficult conversation and not feel that you’re doing something that is going to harm you, or harm another person.”
Agreeing to disagree — we often hear that civil debate and discourse are disappearing in polite society, including within academia. Perhaps this is not solely because of our increasing political and cultural polarization, but because we have forgotten the ways that formal debate and oratory were studied and taught in past generations. We had an interesting talk with Dr. Leslie Rogne Schumacher — who is, in fact, teaching courses on this very subject next year at Harvard Extension School.
Dr. Leslie Rogne Schumacher is a scholar of history, foreign policy/IR, intelligence studies, and leadership. He currently holds posts at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Additionally, Dr. Schumacher is an Academic Director for Haverford College’s Great Books Summer Program, and he previously served as Director of the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence at Wells College, where he also taught history and international studies. He has held fellowships at Harvard, the University of London, and Saint Joseph’s University. In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts for his civic engagement on refugee affairs. In 2024, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his book, The Eastern Question in 1870s Britain: Democracy and Diplomacy, Orientalism and Empire.
Dr. Schumacher currently serves in several posts at Harvard University. He serves as a Faculty Affiliate in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs, where he has taught international relations and public policy. He is also an Associate in Harvard’s History Department. A champion high school debater and former debate team head coach, he is the university member on the board of the Pennsylvania State High School Speech and Debate League.
Join us for this engaging conversation!