Dean's Dialogue: Reducing Political Polarization

Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis hosts conversations with faculty experts on U.S. presidential politics and practice.

Join Dean Pericles Lewis in conversation with David Leonhardt ’94 editorial director for the New York Times Opinion department. Leonhardt will share reflections on how to reduce political polarization and ask attendees to reflect on subjects about which their own political group—and attendees personally—have been wrong.

"The Dean’s Dialogue series models respectful, curious, and candid conversation about difficult topics." READ A space for dialogue: Yale series models civil discussion on hard topics in Yale News.

Host: Dean Pericles Lewis

Pericles Lewis, Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of English at Yale University, serves as Dean of Yale College In partnership with other university leaders and faculty members, he is responsible for guiding the curriculum, intellectual life, residential experience, and student affairs of the Yale College community. His goal is to ensure that Yale offers the world’s best undergraduate education.

INSTAGRAM @yalecollegedean 

YALE CAMPUS PRESS WEBSITE  campuspress.yale.edu/pericleslewis

David Leonhardt '94

David Leonhardt is an editorial director for The New York Times Opinion department, overseeing the editing and writing of editorials.

Mr. Leonhardt, who has held a range of senior roles in The Times's newsroom and Opinion department, assumed his current role in March 2025. He joined The Times in 1999 as a business reporter, covering management and the workplace. In 2006, he relaunched the Economic Scene column for the business section, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2011, for his columns on the financial crisis, health care and other subjects. He became The Times's Washington bureau chief that year, overseeing coverage of policy and politics and reshaping the bureau’s operations to become more digitally focused. READ MORE