Di Senators

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, Maddux Vernon, 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.

Deniz Erdal, President Emeritus

Graduate | TransAtlantic Masters
Joined: September 27, 2021

“Ed Markey’s desk was thrown into the hall by the Statehouse bosses…Markey’s bill is now the law”

– Ed Markey for Congress campaign ad

Jasmine Werry, Senator

Senior | Philosophy and Chemistry
Joined: October 18, 2021

“Without signs there is no ideology.”

– Valentin Nikolaevich Voloshinov

Logan Grodsky, Senator

Senior | Business Administration and Public Policy
Joined: October 18, 2021

“Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.”

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life”

Nathaniel Shue, President Emeritus

Senior | Political Science and History
Joined: November 8, 2021

“There’s strength in being FOR something.”

– Earl Blumenauer

Maddux Vernon, Di President

Senior | Political Science and Peace, War, & Defense
Joined: November 15, 2021

“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.”

– Ivan Turgenev

Anna Crist, Joint Senate President

Senior | Biology and English
Joined: February 28th, 2022

“But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything. One lives only to make blunders — I am going to write a little Book for Murray on orchids & today I hate them worse than everything.”

– Charles Darwin

Bruce McRae, Senator

Senior | Philosophy
Joined: April 2oth, 2022

“Fun things are fun.”

– Hirasawa Yui

Conor Buchanan, Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland

Junior | Public Policy and History
Joined: October 3rd, 2022

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”

– Richard Bach, Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Daniel Gallagher, Senator

Senior | History
Joined: October 17th, 2022

“To have ruined one’s self over poetry is an honour.”

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey

Rania Alaoui, Ambassador to the United Kingdom

Junior | Philosophy and Peace, War, and Defense
Joined: October 24th, 2022

“Fine philosophers take vitalism to court.”

– Jean Baudrillard

Gabby Garner, Senator

Senior | Psychology and Neuroscience
Joined: November 7th, 2022

“I’m feeling such an odd mixture of pride and mortal terror.”

– Aliki Theofilopoulos

Cormac Lynch, President Pro Tempore

Senior | 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

Dean Pearce, Senator

Senior | Biology and Chemistry
Joined: November 16th, 2022

“Mental illness is not funny.”

– Phillip K. Dick, VALIS

Ashley Dowdney, Senator

Junior | Classics and Peace, War, and Defense
Joined: February 27th, 2023

“Ne te quaesiveris extra.”

– Persius Satire 1.7, Epigraph to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”

Christopher McClanahan, Senator

Junior | Computer Science
Joined: February 27th, 2023

“Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Neil Sharma, Senator

Graduate | Masters in Public Policy
Joined: April 10th, 2023

“If you don’t believe in yourself, believe in the me that believes in you!”

– The Great Kamina

Addie Rockoff, Senator

Sophomore | Global Studies and Judaic Studies
Joined: October 9th, 2023

“Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.”

– Milan Kundera

Tolu Osungbesan, Senator

Sophomore | Economics and Public Policy
Joined: October 16th, 2023

“Don’t try to act like someone else… be secure with yourself.”

– Frank Ocean’s Mom

Katherine Fiore, Senator

Junior | History and Public Policy
Joined: October 23rd, 2023

“Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?”

– John Keats, May 1819

Gabriel Walsh, Clerk

Junior| Public Policy and Peace, War, and Defense
Joined: November 6th, 2023

“That some achieve great success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Nicholas Hinson, Senator

Sophomore | Psychology and Computer Science
Joined: January 22nd, 2024

“The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.”

– Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Elias North, Historian

Sophomore | History and American Studies
Joined: March 4th, 2024

“Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life, for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and MINGLE MY BLOOD FURTHER WITH THE BLOOD OF MY CHILDREN, and with the blood of millions in this Slave country, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments – I say; LET IT BE DONE.”

– John Brown, at his trial