Curiousity, Cooperation
In the past year, I’ve stepped into the role of Dean at the University of Utah’s Honors College….so I have the privilege/obligation to build short graduation speeches….and I liked the two I’ve done so far enough to post them here…
University of Utah Honors College Degree Recognition Speech, 2024
Welcome graduates, and guests. Let me begin by acknowledging that this land, which is named for the Ute Tribe, is the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute, and Ute Tribes. The University of Utah recognizes and respects the enduring relationship that exists between many Indigenous Peoples and their traditional homelands. We respect the sovereign relationship between tribes, states, and the federal government, and we affirm the University of Utah’s commitment to a partnership with Native Nations and Urban Indian communities through research, education, and community outreach activities. All of this is not merely pro forma — it is especially important in this historical moment, and at this particular place.
Graduates — it is a privilege to get to recognize and celebrate your graduation — the Honors degree is the highest undergraduate degree conferred at this institution. Those who receive it have demonstrated depth in their chosen fields through scholarly and creative contributions, cultivated a broad foundation for a lifetime of learning and growth through honors coursework, and joined a community that values engaged citizenship. Graduates — you should feel proud.
Guests — your contributions, as family, friends, teachers, advisors, mentors — and the administrators who invest in our students and our programs — this is also a proud moment for you– I think our graduates would agree that your supports have been essential and invaluable.
This class began their college education in a global pandemic — one that challenged us all over the world in diverse ways, with still-emerging effects on us as individuals and societies. And in thinking about that beginning, I actually ended up thinking about my longtime training as a developmental psychologist.
Developmental psychology tells us some things about who we are, what kind of creatures we are, as humans — it has to, because the developmental question is how we get from gametes to all this (gesture). And I find myself, in the wake of the pandemic, pondering two things that I think are really important to who we are, as humans — and which I think also matter a lot for Honors education, and for our world.
The first is curiosity: We are such a curious species — we are tracking and exploring the world around us from the beginning of our lives as individuals, and this curiosity is why our ancestors all over the world — not just in the histories you know and learned — looked at the skies and wondered about the planets, and at the ocean and wondered about what lay beyond the horizon. Those forerunners also probably spent a lot of their curiosity on one another’s doings — a foundation for our capacity to create such complex and varied civilizations and cultures all over the world.
When we admit students to the Honors college, we’re looking for people who are broadly curious — interested in many things. You’ve pursued many questions here on this campus– not least the questions or ideas that motivated your thesis work. But I hope you’ve kept some of that open curiosity along the way — because that curiosity makes the world interesting for you — and can give you some depth of understanding about — for example, the history and present dynamics of the place where we find ourselves — which give rise to land acknowledgments.
The other thing on my mind is cooperation — VERY young (18-month-old) children engage rapidly and easily in spontaneous helping behavior — just when observing someone in need of help. They retrieve dropped objects, point out alternative solutions and so on. And they don’t need much prompting, or a request for help, to do this — they actually infer from observing the adult, what that adult intends or wants, and they act to help that person fulfill their intention.
Young human children also spontaneously divide resources equally, without instruction or prompting. Our default is helping one another and sharing. That cooperative capacity is so foundational to letting us be members of communities — because we aren’t designed for atomized and individual living. Young human babies can die even when given adequate physical care, if they are not connected to particular other people. Loneliness is such a powerful, impactful experience that it not only feels terrible emotionally, but it inscribes itself into our physiology, and affects our health. So, we are superb and “natural” cooperators — and that helps us maintain connections with one another.
In Honors — we have also always looked for students who seem to think beyond themselves in some way — who will bring with them a motivation to make a better world, create community, and whose ideals are not purely centered on themselves and on the here and now — and through your time on this campus, we hope you’ve found many ways — in and out of Honors — to cultivate those cooperative abilities.
Why are these two things so on my mind? I mean, I know many of you may be thinking, curious and cooperative don’t keep us from conflicts, small and interpersonal, and large and heart-wrenching. In fact, cooperation can help us band together to attack other groups more effectively. Curiosity can forge innovation that exploits ourselves and our world in ways that are unsustainable and unjust. We have many qualities as a species, and even the apparently positives are not always so. So, why am I thinking so much about curiosity and cooperation today? Because I think they are crucial for this moment in which you are graduating.
When we lean hard on curiosity — approaching disputes with sincere interest in understanding other people — it is not easy. It is also not magic. Understanding others doesn’t necessarily change our own minds, or theirs. It doesn’t eliminate the conflicts among us. But it does do two important things. It makes it very hard to see those we disagree with as less-than or as other — curiosity gives us a basis to think of those with whom we disagree as fellow human beings. And, as we lead with curiosity, we learn about where we do agree, and might work together towards a common good. It gives us more space to cooperate where and how we can, even when we disagree.
So, as you launch — stay curious — about your fields and careers, but also about the bigger world and the other humans that inhabit it — even and perhaps especially the ones you aren’t keen on. use your curiosity to help you expand your ability to cooperate– to act towards the common good, partnering with others. A curious, cooperative life is a good life — for you, and for everyone — and that’s my wish for you on this commencement day.
