Deliberative Citizenship Initiative

Building Democracy One Conversation at a Time

DCI Posts

A New Assistant Director Joins the DCI!

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Willow Paul slide

The DCI is happy to share that Willow Paul is our new Assistant Director! Willow will be assisting with the development, implementation, and assessment of the DCI’s programs and operations. Willow earned her B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies from Colorado State University with a specialization in Deliberative Practice, making her particularly well-suited to help lead the DCI’s efforts in creating opportunities for productive dialogue and deliberation in diverse classroom settings, outside of the classroom, and in the community.

Willow has conducted in-depth research on deliberative democracy, facilitation training, and public discourse initiatives. Her master’s thesis, “Healing a Divided Democracy,” provides important insights on efforts to bridge divides in hyperpolarized societies. Willow also served on the leadership team at Colorado State’s Center for Public Deliberation and has extensive experience designing deliberative processes, facilitating difficult conversations, and conducting research on deliberative practices. Willow’s dedication to supporting the DCI’s mission is grounded in a deep appreciation for the diverse ideological landscape of the United States. She is deeply committed to this work, and her extensive research and practitioner experience will enable her to make significant contributions to expanding the impact that the DCI has had thus far.  

All to say, we are excited that Willow has joined the DCI team! Watch out for blog posts and emails from Willow, and say hi to her if you see her around campus or in the community.

A 4th of July Message of Hope: The DCI is Part of an Important and Growing Movement

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Bridging differences logo from Greater Good Science Center

Happy Fourth of July! On this day celebrating American independence, many Americans are no doubt feeling a deep sense of unease about the country’s politics. In a June 2024 Gallup poll, 77% of Americans reported they were dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States. In 2023, 79% of Americans described American politics in negative terms, 65% said they were exhausted by politics, and 61% reported that political conversations with people they disagree with are stressful and frustrating. Only 10% felt hopeful about US politics.

These feelings are reinforced by a constant bombardment of negative stories in the news media and on social media. The images and narratives emerging in the midst of the campus protests that occurred this spring may have been particularly disheartening, regardless of where you fall on the issues involved. So I wanted to share with you some good news that might give you at least a little bit of hope on this 248th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

This past year, the DCI’s Assistant Director Sara Copic and I participated in a Bridging Differences Community of Practice hosted by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. This group included 28 deliberation scholars and practitioners from across the United States who are working earnestly to foster more productive dialogue on their college campuses. They came from large public and private universities, medical colleges, law schools, community colleges, and liberal arts colleges like Davidson.

We met regularly as a large cohort to hear from experts in the field on topics such as the science and practice of listening, the psychology of intergroup processes, and the measurement and evaluation of dialogue outcomes.  We were also split into small groups who met separately to discuss our progress on our work, challenges that have come up, and questions we had for one another. My group had representatives from Stanford University, Providence College, the University of Alabama, and California State University East Bay, and it was fascinating to hear about everyone’s different experiences with bridging divides on their campuses.

What I took away from this experience was a sense that a lot of good and smart people are working creatively, thoughtfully, and tirelessly on building connections across social and political differences. Even though you may not see it and it is not the first thing that comes up on your newsfeed, there is a solid and growing community – for example, over 200 campus leaders have participated in the Greater Good Science Center’s Bridging Differences in Higher Education Learning Fellowship since its inception – engaged in this work. From the conversations I participated in as a part of this community, I was deeply impressed by everyone’s commitment to fostering productive conversations on challenging topics, despite the challenges they face.

I also saw even more clearly how the DCI is an important part of this work. As innovative and active as we are, we may often feel that we are swimming alone in a toxic sea of hyper-polarization. But we are in fact connected to an extensive network of efforts with similar goals and methods that is building more deliberative cultures and communities across the country. The movement to engage more productively in political conversation is real and growing, and the DCI – and anyone who has participated in a D Team or Deliberative Forum or been a member of the DeeP Collaborative – is contributing to the growth and dynamism of that movement. As we examine other deliberation programs, this is a point we make frequently to our DCI Fellows, but it is worth reinforcing among our wider community as well.

As an election season that threatens to be one of the most acrimonious and rancorous in recent memory gets underway, the challenges to this work are no doubt significant. But just as the Continental Congress overcame the immeasurable odds against them and came together to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776 (the reimagined 1776 musical that I saw last year provides a trenchant reminder of their difficulties), so too can we find ways to bridge our differences in the months and years to come.

DCI Co-Organizes Inaugural North Carolina Campus Discourse Leaders Conference

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Participant presenting at conference

Faculty and staff who work on improving public discourse on college campuses can often feel disconnected from similar efforts at other institutions, even those that are very nearby. The Deliberative Citizenship Initiative recently collaborated with several other organizations to organize an opportunity for these public discourse scholars and practitioners to share ideas, practices, and challenges with one another.

On April 5, the DCI, the Program for Public Discourse at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Kernodle Center for Civic Life at Elon University, and the Free Expression and Constructive Dialogue Task Force at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and NC Campus Engagement (a consortium of 41 higher education institutions in North Carolina) partnered to host the inaugural North Carolina Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.

Over 40 faculty and staff members representing 18 different institutions of higher education from across North Carolina attended the day-long conference. They included participants from state universities (e.g., North Carolina State, Western Carolina University), private universities (e.g., Duke University, Wake Forest University), historically black colleges and universities (e.g., North Carolina Central University, Winston Salem State University), and community colleges (e.g., Wake Tech Community College, Durham Technical Community College) and came from the eastern, western, central, and southern regions of the state.

Participants discussing around a table

Hosted at the University of North Carolina  at Chapel Hill, the conference provided an opportunity for participants to share their approaches and challenges that they have experienced at their institutions. They were also able to learn from each other in highly interactive breakout discussions with colleagues at institutions that are both similar to and different from their own.

The conference was structured into four sessions, each beginning with an introductory presentation on a key topic of discourse from the co-organizing partners before opening into round-table discussions. Campus discourse leaders shared the strategies they have been implementing in their own programs, discussed challenges they have been faced with, and offered future points of discussion. Session topics included:

  • The Context of Public Discourse on College Campuses Today
  • Strategies for Fostering Robust Discourse in the Classroom
  • Strategies for Fostering Robust Discourse on Campus and in the Community
  • Strategies for Connecting and Collaborating across Campuses
Participants discussing around a table

The NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference inspired a commitment to ongoing collaboration and support among attendees and organizers, with plans already underway for future events and initiatives aimed at advancing the mission of dialogue and discourse on college campuses statewide.

Participants left the conference with a new network of colleagues from across North Carolina, new opportunities for collaboration on projects related to public discourse, and new ideas to consider and implement back on their campuses. 

Special recognition is due to the great team of partners who made this event possible. Kevin Marinelli and Alissa Bouttavong from the UNC-Chapel Hill Program for Public Discourse were amazing hosts who spearheaded the logistics of the conference and worked closely with the co-organizing planning team of Leslie Garvin (NC Campus Engagement), Graham Bullock (Davidson College), Matthew Metzgar (UNC Charlotte), Anne Moore (UNC Charlotte), and Andrew Moffa (Elon University). The team met regularly for nearly a year to organize the conference and is looking forward to following up on its success in the months to come.

Leslie Garvin presenting at the NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.
Leslie Garvin from North Carolina Campus Engagement
presenting at the NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.
Graham Bullock presenting at the NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.
Conference co-organizer Graham Bullock from Davidson College presenting at the
NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.

Conference host and co-organizer Kevin Marinelli from UNC-Chapel Hill presenting at the
NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.

Kevin Marinelli presenting at the NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.
Matt presenting at the NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.
Matt Metzgar from UNC Charlotte presenting at the NC Campus Discourse Leaders Conference.

The DCI Fellows Program – Check out the New Video about this Opportunity Not To Be Missed!

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Picture of DCI Fellows.

Each year, the DCI selects 12-15 students to serve as Deliberative Citizenship Fellows.  These fellows spend the year playing a leadership role in the initiative.  They immerse themselves in deliberative theory and methods, help choose the issues for the year’s focus, facilitate robust deliberations on those issues, and reflect on and document their experiences as sponsors of these discussions.

Applications for the 2024-25 Fellowship Program are now open. All Davidson students are welcome to apply. To submit your application, please complete the ‘Deliberative Citizenship Initiative – Fellows Application’ form on WildcatSync. The priority application deadline is May 30. Applications will remain open and new submissions accepted on a rolling basis until July 31 or once all positions have been filled by qualified candidates. To learn more and apply for this opportunity, check out the short video about the program that features several of the DCI’s 2023-24 Fellows and the additional information below.

Fellows-2024-25-Flyer



DCI-Fellows-2024-25-Job-Description

To apply, click on the link below:

Apply Today to Become a DeeP Faculty Fellow!

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Multiple images of fellows working in the 900 room at the Davidson College Union.

The DCI invites all full-time faculty members who teach undergraduates to apply to participate in the fourth year of its Deliberative Pedagogy (DeeP) Collaborative. Applications to join the Collaborative are welcome from faculty in all departments at both Davidson and other higher education institutions who wish to enhance their ability to embed more deliberation about questions and issues involving important disagreements in their classes. With the generosity of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the DCI is able to provide a stipend of $2000 for participants who complete the expectations of the Fellowship. Review of applications will begin on Monday, April 22 and will continue until all spaces are filled.

DeeP-Collaborative-2024-Poster

So far over 40 faculty members from Davidson and 18 other colleges and universities — from UNC Charlotte and Alamance Community College to Swarthmore College and Southwestern University — have participated in the Collaborative. Collaborative members spend an academic year learning about and discussing deliberative pedagogy theory and techniques, embedding them into their own course plans and syllabi, and then actually teaching courses that are infused with deliberation in a multitude of ways. They have come from a wide range of social science, humanities, and natural science disciplines, including Africana studies, anthropology, archaeology/classics, biology, management, chemistry, communications, dance, economics, education, English, environmental studies, gender and sexuality studies, German studies, Hispanic studies, history, mathematics, philosophy, physics, political science, public health, sociology, and more.

Check out the comments from some of the Collaborative’s members below:

  • Luis Gonzalez-Barrios (World Languages and Cultures, Spelman College): “The planning process of the course was very interesting, since it not only made me think about the new DeeP materials, but also about the way of organizing the sessions, the periodization of the modules, and of course the forms of evaluation. I mean, it made me rethink my entire pedagogical approach…Experiential learning and democratic deliberation seem to me necessary pedagogical approaches in times of constant “noise” and polarization.”
  • Rachel Pang (Religious Studies, Davidson College): “One of the best things about participating in the DeeP Collaborative was the chance to engage with a group of experienced and creative pedagogues at Davidson and other ACS institutions.”
  • Caleb Stroup (Economics, Davidson College): “Overall, I think students benefited greatly from structured deliberation aimed at developing their abilities to reach collective agreement about competing values embedded in scientific research conclusions.”
  • Emily Sydnor (Political Science, Southwestern University): “Overall, I found the deliberative discussions and affiliated assignments achieved my course goals and were interesting and engaging for both me and the students. In their reflections on deliberation, several participants commented that in spite of their initial anxiety about talking politics with their peers, they had found the discussions to be a positive experience.” 

You can learn more about the Collaborative experience by watching a panel of four faculty members who have been DeeP Fellows in earlier Collaborative cohorts. Check out the recording below…

You can also learn more by reading the blog posts by these and other faculty members about the courses they developed as members of the Collaborative that are posted on the DCI Blog and listed below:

Blog posts from our 2023-24 Collaborative members will be published this summer (you can sign-up for updates on the DCI’s website). You can learn more about the 22 members of this cohort of the Collaborative here. More on the background, goals, and expectations of the Collaborative is provided in embedded PDF invitation below and on the DCI’s “Deliberation Across the Curriculum” webpage. 

DeeP-Collaborative-Invitation-2024-25

The 2024-25 cohort will also include faculty from both Davidson and other institutions of higher education – if you know someone who might be interested, encourage them to apply – all faculty are welcome! More on the background and goals of the Collaborative and DCI’s Deliberation Across the Curriculum is available here. If you have any questions about the Collaborative, please reach out to the DCI’s Faculty Director, Graham Bullock (grbullock@davidson.edu), or any of the Collaborative’s current or former faculty fellows.