A documentary on the importance of finding true love in the modern world will play for all of campus in Plaster Auditorium Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m. with a discussion panel to follow.
The Department of Philosophy and Religion will be screening “The Dating Project,” a documentary that follows students and young adults in cities across the U.S. to explain how hook-up culture doesn’t meet the human desire for emotional connection. The documentary offers straightforward pointers for dating, such as taking more risks.
“The documentary is thought-provoking, challenging, and useful,” Associate Professor of Theology Jordan Wales said. “How many of you recently went on a date that you knew was a date and wasn’t a long ambiguous interaction?”
The panel afterwards will include Wales, his wife Kathryn Wales, Professor of Education David Diener, and his wife Brooke Diener.
“The panelists are two intelligent, attractive, and entertaining couples,” Professor of Philosophy and Religion Nathan Schlueter said. “I put this event together in conjunction with my Philosophy of Love, Sex, and Marriage class, but it is open to the entire campus community and should be interesting.”
Wales said he wished the documentary had existed when he was an undergraduate — a story he will cover in the panel discussion.
“The Hillsdale experience offers a uniquely high-minded intellectual culture. It is not unique, however, in the phenomenon of young men and women anxiously never asking each other out because they’re not sure what that would be like, how to do it, or what it would mean,” Wales said. “Or they fear seeming to try too hard, or — like most human beings — they fear rejection.”
