Barry Kroll writes, “For the past seven years, I’ve been teaching a course that asks first-year college students to consider the following question: How can arguing—so often associated with controversy and conflict—be practiced as an art of peace? I use the figures of the closed fist and open hand to represent different approaches to argument: one adversarial, the other conciliatory. My focus is on the open hand, a rich gesture that signals peaceful intentions but also lends itself to further analysis, since it can function as an instrument of contact, connection, and control.