Deliberative Citizenship Initiative

Building Democracy One Conversation at a Time

Graham Bullock

Spring 2024 Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Panel & Lunch

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DeeP Faculty Panel

On Friday, March 15th, faculty from Davidson and beyond gathered to learn from Professors Emily Sydnor (Political Science, Southwestern University), Rachel Pang (Religious Studies, Davidson College), Bassil El-Zaatari (Chemistry, Davidson College), and Anthony Kuchera (Physics, Davidson College) about how to integrate deliberative practices into their classrooms over lunch. The panelists spoke about best practices for hosting deliberations in the classroom, facilitating deliberation, providing feedback, and the improved learning outcomes they found in the courses where they had started to practice deliberative pedagogy.

For example, Professor El-Zaatari encouraged STEM faculty not to shy away from deliberative pedagogy in their courses. And Professor Pang spoke about increased student engagement and how students felt an increased sense of ownership over the course in her deliberative religious studies course. All in all, participants walked away with new knowledge about how to update their teaching practice with deliberative practices.

The event highlighted the work that all four professors did as members of the DCI’s Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Collaborative, which is a year-long, paid fellowship program that helps faculty embed deliberation about contentious topics into their courses related to their content. Attendees of the panel and lunch learned about how professors from very different disciplines can update their teaching practice with deliberative practices.

Graham Bullock, Faculty Director of the DCI, moderated the panel and announced that the applications to join the 2024-25 cohort of the Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Collaborative are now being accepted. Review of applications will begin on April 22 and will continue until all positions are filled. If participating in the Collaborative sounds intriguing to you, learn more and apply to be a Faculty Fellow in next year’s Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Collaborative here.

You can learn more about the Collaborative and hear what the panelists had to say yourself by checking out our recording of the panel discussion below…

A Deliberative Forum on Guns in America

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Join us for an opportunity to learn about and discuss one of the most challenging topics in American politics

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Can we talk about one of the most contentious and challenging topics in American politics? One that touches on some of our most basic concerns and aspirations about life in a free society? The Deliberative Citizenship Initiative, Center for Political Engagement, and Political Science Department believe we can and we must at least try to do so, with as much compassion, curiosity, and courage as possible, and in the hope that we will come to a greater understanding and create the foundation for sustained progress on this issue.

We therefore cordially invite you to join us for a Deliberative Forum on Guns in America: How Should We Balance Concerns about Gun Rights and Gun Risks? It is being held on Tuesday, April 2 from 7 pm to 9 pm in the Lilly Gallery and online. Sign up to attend the forum through this link — we have extended the deadline from March 28 to March 31. Virtual and in-person registration options are available. We hope you can join us!

  • The Forum will begin with a panel of advocates and experts with different views on this topic who will explore their areas of agreement and disagreement about the costs and benefits of different approaches to gun rights, gun regulations, and gun violence. 
  • Panelists include Shannon Klug (Former Air Force Colonel with Moms Demand Action, Be SMART, and Everytown Veterans Advisory Council), Philip Smith (President of the National African Americans Gun Association), Ray Nothstine (Future of Freedom Fellow and Senior Editor at a non-profit focusing on state level policy and former Second Amendment Research Fellow at the John Locke Foundation), and Dominic Erdozain (Research Fellow at Emory University and author of One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts our History and Threatens our Democracy). Learn more about them in their bios below.
  • The panel will be moderated by Dan Aldridge, Professor of History, Chair of Africana Studies, and a former DCI Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Faculty Fellow. 
  • Following the panel discussion, both online and in-person forum attendees will have the opportunity to deliberate about the topic among themselves, guided by the DCI’s trained facilitators.

Panelist Bios

Shannon Klug works with Moms Demand Action, a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, and is the Charlotte Co-Lead for Be SMART, an organization that advocates for secure gun storage to save children’s lives. She is also a gun owner and retired Air Force Colonel, and she is a member of the Everytown Veterans Advisory Council. Klug has written numerous op-eds in the Charlotte Observer, Stars and Stripes, and elsewhere about the importance of reducing gun violence and improving gun safety.

Philip Smith, a graduate of the University of California at Davis, is the president and founder of the National African American Gun Association (NAAGA). The National African American Gun Association is an organization that promotes gun ownership rights among African Americans in the United States. Founded in 2015, it has over 34,000 members (60% of whom are African American women), more than 75 chapters in the United States, and has grown significantly in reaction to black deaths. 

Ray Nothstine is a Future of Freedom Fellow and senior editor and writer for a non-profit focusing on state-level policy. He previously worked as opinion editor at Carolina Journal and as a Second Amendment research fellow at the John Locke Foundation. Nothstine served for over seven years as managing editor of Religion & Liberty, a publication of the Acton Institute. He has written numerous articles advocating for gun rights and fewer gun regulations in The Carolina Journal, Salisbury Post, The Anson Record, and elsewhere. 

Dominic Erdozain is a writer and historian with a passion for bringing the past into dialogue with the present. A graduate of Oxford and Cambridge, he is currently a Research Fellow at Emory University. In his book, One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts our History and Threatens our Democracy, published by Random House in 2024, Erdozain places America’s gun problem in a broader philosophical and historical context and argues that we have wrongly ceded the big-picture argument on guns.

Moderator Bio

Dr. Dan Aldridge will serve as the moderator of the panel. Dr. Aldridge is Professor of History and Chair of Africana Studies at Davidson College. He has also participated as a Faculty Fellow in the DCI’s Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Collaborative. Dr. Aldridge has served as a public defender in Los Angeles and written extensively about the history of the African American civil rights movement. He received his PhD from Emory University, his JD from Northwestern University, and his BA from Michigan State University.

Register Here by March 28

Deliberating GOATs

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Davidson students, want to discuss the Greatest Of All Time athletes, actors, and movies, but fear the conversation will deteriorate into chaos and conflict? Enjoy chatting about the best places to eat, study, and hangout on campus, but haven’t had the chance to do so recently? 

Then look no further than the second annual Deliberating GOATS 900 Room @ Nine event! It is hosted by the student fellows of the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative (DCI) who will be facilitating respectful and engaging discussions about your favorite GOAT categories. 

It will be like a mashup of trivia night, late-night discussions with friends over random topics, and DCI forums and small group discussions. This is a fun, low-key opportunity to find common ground with your classmates and decide who and what truly are the GOATs. You can enjoy your discussions over Ice Cream Sundaes and popcorn, and the 900 Room Bar will also be open to serve ages 21+. And there is an added bonus: prizes – Stanley tumblers and beer steins – will also be given away! 

We hope to see you at the 900 Room on March 12 from 9-10 pm (the Tuesday after Spring Break). Everyone is welcome but seats are limited so come on time to join the fun. Make sure to bring all your skills of deliberation and ideas about GOATs!

Going Deeper in the Classroom: The Spring 2024 Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Faculty Panel and Lunch

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A chemist, political scientist, physicist, and religion scholar are all serving on an upcoming panel. What do they have in common? Experience embedding deliberation about difficult and contentious topics into their classrooms!

On March 15 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, Professors Bassil El-Zaatari (Chemistry, Davidson), Emily Sydnor (Political Science, Southwestern), Anthony Kuchera (Physics, Davidson), and Rachel Pang (Religious Studies, Davidson) will be sharing their work as members of the Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Collaborative.

Over 40 faculty members from 18 different institutions have participated in the Collaborative, which enables professors from across the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences to work together on developing and implementing innovative ways to stimulate deeper discussions in their courses. 

Are you a faculty member who is curious about how you might do something similar in your classroom? Or perhaps you already do, and are interested in picking up some new ideas? Then come join our Spring 2024 Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Faculty Panel and Lunch, co-hosted by theDeliberative Citizenship Initiative, E.H. Little Library, and the Center for Teaching and Learning. You can join either in-person or virtually. Lunch will be provided for all in-person participants, but seats are limited so sign up here today!

To learn more about the Deliberative Pedagogy Collaborative, the DCI’s Deliberation Across the Curriculum Program, and the upcoming panel, check out the attached flyer, this webpage, and these blog posts by faculty members who have participated in the Collaborative over the past two years.

We hope you can join us!

The DCI’s Spring Kickoff Party – Biggest Turnout Ever!

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Davidson students gathering at a round table discussion

This past Friday, the DCI started off the new year with some fantastic energy when it held its Spring Semester Kickoff Party. Over 50 people came out to enjoy some pizza and conversation about a wide range of topics. They included Davidson students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members, some of whom had never heard of the DCI and others who were DCI veterans.

Attendees filled up tables in the College Union’s Atrium that were dedicated to different topics – Davidson Issues, Technology and Social Media Issues, International Issues, US Politics, Economic Issues, and more. DCI Fellows facilitated informal discussions of questions related to each table’s topics, aided by copies of the DCI’s Conversation Agreements and Deliberative Dispositions that were available as placemats at each table. For the adventurous, there were a couple of “mystery tables” where questions from a wide range of domains were discussed.

Every 15 minutes or so, the DCI’s Faculty Director and Assistant Director spoke briefly about upcoming DCI events and offered some deliberative tips to the attendees. At each interlude, one attendee was randomly selected to win a prize from the DCI for attending the event. And then the conversations continued! Participants could stay at their table or switch between tables to try out different topics.

It was a great way for students to connect with each other as well as engage with faculty, staff, and community members. And everyone got to experience a deeper and more respectful kind of conversation than they might normally have in our highly polarized and politically fragmented society. It provided a window into what the DCI is focused on – building democracy, one conversation at a time – and a gateway to other DCI programs, including our Spring D Teams on Education Issues (registration deadline January 25) and upcoming Deliberative Forum on AI (registration deadline January 31).