A Brief History of the Deerfield Forum

The Deerfield Forum was created in 2021, and this year’s Munk Debates were hosted by the Academy for its fifth Deerfield Forum event on April 21, 2026. The Forum’s goal has always been launching annual events to promote scholarly and civic engagement on a school-wide scale, mirroring the 2016 Deerfield Vision of encouraging “diverse perspectives.” From discussing diversity to gene editing, the Forum continues to change, improve, and attempt new topics.

The idea of creating the Forum was conceived by History and Social Science Teacher Joe Lyons, who proposed to the Head of School John Austin the idea of frequently featuring speakers and bringing discussions of urgent, contemporary issues to campus. 

History and Social Science Department Chair and Teacher Brian Hamilton said, “Dr. Austin was especially excited about the opportunity to present to and engage students on these questions. Also, to present them with varied opinions on matters to show a breadth of thinking, both from political and disciplinary professional perspectives.”

Mr. Hamilton said, “Mr. Lyons's idea, I think, was lower profile and more frequent. And it quickly morphed into a high profile once a year event.” Mr. Lyon’s proposal was approved and put into action by senior leaders, Dr. Austin and former Dean of Faculty Ivory D. Hills. Together, the Head of School Office and Academic Affairs Office put every plan together into the accomplishment of five forums up until now.

The annual preparation process for each event takes months of preplanning. Mr. Hamilton said, “In the past few years, because of the importance of a long planning horizon on an event like this at a school as busy as ours is to do a lot of the planning in the beginning of the summer.” Drafting begins from the end of a previous school year and lasts until the start of next year’s spring. 

Within almost a year, the team aimed to engage the student body effectively. They considered different ways to execute the event, bearing the same intention of bringing different voices of contemporary interest to campus. Dr. Austin said, “That was kind of the goal. Under that idea, we played with a lot of different formats.”

In addition to time spent on shaping the forum’s format, care was devoted to choosing a topic that aligns with student interest and emphasizes an important public matter. 

Dr. Austin said, “One of the real challenges is getting the topic.” This year, the team explored 20 to 25 different debate propositions before making a final decision on the forum’s topic. “We were trying to choose something accessible to students, excite interest, and result in authentic reason debate and conversation.”

The first forum examined the concept of “diversity” and reflected the 2016 Strategic Plan for Inclusion—stated in part: “Diverse perspectives fuel creative and innovative thinking and build empathy and consideration.” The second forum shifted its focus and presented the student body with the topic of Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Being Human, inviting professional speakers of the field. Stuart Russell and Melanie Mitchell came on campus to express their views on the budding technology of generative AI.

While sparking meaningful discussion among the student body, the forum also inspired many students to delve even deeper into the topic itself. Marco Feng ’26 said, “I remember because of that forum, I did a two year long project on my own thinking and reading about the philosophical limits of AI.” Now, he’s working on a directed studies project on how AI affects society and its usage in humanities research.

To further accomplish the goal of facilitating student engagement and stressing “diversity,” the Academy found a good match and partner for its fifth forum—The Munk Debates. “Dr. Austin has long been a fan of the program and really sees it working toward the same goals that he has for young people and building their skills at appreciating intellectual diversity and making discerning judgments based on reasoned argument,” Mr. Hamilton said.

To boost similar conversations around campus, the Forum team devised ideas each year to involve student discussion about the topic for a longer time. For instance, this year, the Forum and Mr. Hamilton set up cards about the debate on sitdown tables, prompting students to naturally fall into relevant talks.

As a student in a growing community, one is encouraged to convey curiosity about opposing views and present day matters like a good debate moderator does, according to Dr. Austin. Conversation is a huge part of this. To get these conversations started, Dr. Austin said, “Just don't be shy. Ask the questions that you have. Every good conversation has good questions.”