The Dialectic Senate proudly carries on the tradition of Society-father James Mebane, who presided over the first student organization at the University of North Carolina and the second student organization at any American university. The Dialectic Society has always stood as UNC’s symbol of student extracurricular achievement. The ideals of virtus and scientia and the current Dialectic President, Callie Stevens, guide the Society as it continually strives to better itself and the university. Below is a list of active Dialectic Senators. The Dialectic Constitution may be viewed here.
Valerie Calvo, Senator
Senior | Physics and English
Joined: October 15th, 2018
“When people talk, listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen.”
– Ernest Hemingway
Alexander Dowdy, Senator
Third year law student
Joined: February 2, 2019
“This too shall pass.”
– Persian adage
Jessica Barta, Senator
Senior | Psychology
Joined: October 15th, 2020
“How did I get here?”
– Desmond the Moon Bear
Sam Robinson, Senator
Junior | Philosophy and Political Science
Joined: April 20, 2021
“I used to practice my speeches on my tractor while I plowed my daddy’s field.”
– Governor James B. Hunt, Jr.
Deniz Erdal, Treasurer
Sophomore | Contemporary European Studies and Information Science
Joined: September 27, 2021
“Ed Markey’s desk was thrown out into the hall by the statehouse bosses… Markey’s bill is now the law.”
– Ed Markey for Congress Campaign Ad
Lilian Manning, Senator
Sophomore | Computer Science and Studio Art
Joined: October 4, 2021
“I love this. You will love this.”
– Joseph Cornell
Jasmine Werry, Senator
Sophomore | Philosophy and Chemistry
Joined: October 18, 2021
“Without signs there is no ideology.”
– Valentin Nikolaevich Voloshinov
Logan Grodsky, President Pro Tempore
Sophomore | Business Administration and Public Policy
Joined: October 18, 2021
“We come here . . . to honor the past, and in that honor, render more secure the present.”
– President J. Calvin Coolidge
Jackson Meade, Senator
Junior | Computer Science and Political Science
Joined: November 8, 2021
“Two seals are sitting in a bathtub full of waaaaaarm crisco….”
– Actress on the set of Twilight: Breaking Dawn
Nathaniel Shue, Senator
Sophomore | Public Policy and Political Science
Joined: November 8, 2021
“It gets real nice around the graveyard, once you’ve acquired the taste.”
– John Darnielle
Maddux Vernon, Senator
Sophomore | Political Science and Peace, War, & Defense
Joined: November 15, 2021
“It’s a stupid argument and everyone is wrong thank you.”
– Matthew Tweden
Matthew Tweden, Critic
Sophomore | Public Policy and Peace, War, & Defense
Joined: November 17, 2021
“The higher our standards, the greater our progress, the more we can do for the world.”
– President J. Calvin Coolidge
Erica Boey Yyng Shan, Senator
Junior | Advertising & PR and Political Science
Joined: November 17, 2021
“Ditch your boyfriend and date me, I’ll be your best Boey.”
Anna Crist, Senator
Sophomore | Biology and English
Joined: February 28th, 2022
“None but those who have experienced them can conceive of the enticements of science. In other studies you go as far as others have gone before you, but in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder.”
– Mary Shelley
Callie Stevens, Di President
Senior | Psychology
Joined: April 11th, 2022
“Things are only impossible until they’re not.”
– Jean-Luc Picard
Bruce McRae, Senator
Sophomore | Philosophy
Joined: April 2oth, 2022
“Fun things are fun.”
– Hirasawa Yui
Conor Buchanan, Senator
First year | Peace, War, & Defense
Joined: October 3rd, 2022
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!”
– Adam Savage
Sophie van Duin, Historian
Sophomore | Peace, War, & Defense and Hispanic Literatures & Cultures
Joined: October 10th, 2022
“We lead strange lives, chasing our dreams around from place to place.”
– Erin Morgenstern, the Night Circus
Daniel Gallagher, Sergeant-at-Arms
Sophomore | History
Joined: October 17th, 2022
“Our freedom must be had at all hazards. If the men of property will not help us they must fall; we will free ourselves by the aid of that large and respectable class of the community – the men of no property.”
– Theobold Wolfe Tone
Rania Alaoui, Senator
First year | Philosophy and Astronomy
Joined: October 24th, 2022
“Our kinfolk believed these dunes to bear messages in their grains. Stories, prophecies, hymns of old – a thousand-thousand words scribed in both common and strange, whispering in the wind’s tongue across the breathless desert storm. In translation I’ve many attempts, but mine eyes cannot read beyond what they see, so I’ve simply stepped across these thousand-thousand words, and let them be scattered.”
– Irdamat Mai
Joseph Ellis, Senator
Senior | German Literature
Joined: October 24th, 2022
“Doubt grows with knowledge.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nicole Belcher, Senator
Sophomore | History and Communication
Joined: November 7th, 2022
“Whatever you choose to do, leave tracks. That means don’t do it just for yourself. You will want to leave the world a little better for your having lived.”
– Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Gabby Garner, Senator
Sophomore | Psychology and Neuroscience
Joined: November 7th, 2022
“I’m feeling such an odd mixture of pride and mortal terror.”
– Aliki Theofilopoulos
Cormac Lynch, Senator
Sophomore | Economics
Joined: November 14th, 2022
“What is important is not to see but to understand.”
– Inscribed on the tombstone of a blind girl at Lourdes, brought there seeking the miracle of sight
