The lecture emphasized the role that verbal and nonverbal presence plays in establishing compassion in times of crisis.
“We are living in a society where increasingly we are not present,” Tracy said. “Compassion begins with the choice to communicate.”
Tracy said that moving forward she hopes that her research will be built off of to further analyze and understand situations similar to Tuff and Hill’s interaction.
Neal Lester, the director of Project Humanities and an English professor at ASU, helped moderate a discussion following the lecture where several audience members voiced their opinions on and asked questions about the 2013 incident and the results of the research conducted afterwards.
“The idea is to remind us that we haven’t lost our humanity,” Lester said in closing, referring to events like “Compassion in the Face of Terror” that Project Humanities sponsors.
By Erin Beals
