"Culture as Catalyst presents new writing and dialogues with artists, scholars, activists, curators, journalists, producers, and influential thinkers on urgent issues of our time. From 2016 to 2019, the Tang Teaching Museum convened ten public panel discussions on critical topics: whiteness; migration and immigration; mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex; technology, visual culture, and the politics of representation; feminism in the digital age; memory and monuments in public spaces; rights and responsibilities of citizenship; cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation; navigating forgiveness, redemption, and rejection; and food justice, sustainability, and well-being. Transcripts from these conversations as well as newly commissioned essays form this book, which reminds us of the power of civil discourse and how the skills of genuine listening, critical thinking, and honest speaking are key to building empathy and knowledge. Culture as Catalyst is a compilation of these provocations-a compendium of diverse ways to make new connections, craft pathways to understanding, and think radically about the urgent issues facing our world today"--