Deliberative Citizenship Initiative

Building Democracy One Conversation at a Time

Faculty Posts

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.

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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. 

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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.

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…

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!

Thanksgiving With a Side of Politics

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Pumpkins and squashes at harvest time

By Sara Copic, DCI Assistant Director

It’s a commonplace saying in American culture that we shouldn’t talk about politics at family gatherings. And though American political polarization is nothing new, recent Israeli military raids in Gaza in response to the October 7th Hamas attack in Israel have the potential to deepen our political divides and leave us feeling more emotionally reactive, more prone to blaming one another, and potentially less willing to spend time together at Thanksgiving. Recent landmark Supreme Court rulings, former President Donald Trump’s ongoing trials, and an upcoming presidential election make the political stakes feel even higher.

What practices or intentions might help us have a Thanksgiving that connects us with our families, communities, and friends—and what should we leave at the door? One thing we have control over and that can help us connect is the practice of approaching a disagreement with genuine curiosity.

All too often, when we get into a discussion about a social or political problem, we fall into a debate—you have your reasons, I have mine, now let’s figure out who’s right and who’s wrong. But if we’re gathering to connect, as we hope to do at Thanksgiving, debate is likely not the right tool for the occasion. Instead, asking how someone came to hold their beliefs and why those beliefs are so important to them with openness and curiosity can better aid connection.

There’s a fine line between asking “why do you think that?” in the spirit of debate and in the spirit of curiosity. But asking questions that aim toward understanding rather than adversarial debate can show someone you really care, rather than that you’re looking for a fight. One way to show genuine curiosity is not to follow up on those questions right away with opposing positions and arguments, but to sit with where the other person is coming from. Making space for their beliefs without arguing against them can be a way of showing acceptance for someone as a person, even if you ultimately disagree with her worldview.

An objector might ask, “But what if I find my family members’ views morally problematic? What if what they advocate is, in my opinion, unjust?” The idea here may be that we must—perhaps for reasons of moral integrity, or for the sake of doing the right thing—disabuse our family and friends of the problematic views they hold. Indeed, we shouldn’t simply let a disagreement lie indefinitely or condone a serious injustice where we see it. But might it be possible and even preferable to leave the business of moral and political argumentation aside in some contexts so that we may foster a mutual care for each other, and lay the foundation for more productive disagreements in the future? By approaching our deep disagreements with curiosity first, we may be able to build the trust needed in order to have the hard conversations we would like to have together.

If this approach resonates with you, or you would like to learn more about it, check out some of our programming from this semester in which Christy Vines explains the idea of empathic intelligence and how to harness it to connect across our lines of difference.

Want more Thanksgiving inspiration? Check out posts by Carla Cole and Dalton Landon for more perspectives about how to approach holiday connection and conversation.

Christy Vines Visit to Davidson: Recordings are Posted!

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Headshot Image of Christy Vines

In September, the DCI partnered with the Office of the Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer, Dean Rusk International Studies Program, Chaplain’s Office, and Public Lectures Committee to bring Christy Vines to campus as part of our Deliberative Speaker Series. Christy is President and CEO of Ideos Institute and Executive Producer of the documentary film Dialogue Lab: America. Much of her current focuses on the concept and practice of empathic intelligence.

In the course of her visit, Christy met with multiple student groups, led two workshops, and gave one public lecture. She argued that empathic intelligence is a skill that we can all hone over time, and that it is required in order for us to be effective in our goals that require engaging with and understanding others. Empathic intelligence involves our ability to understand others in a way that humanizes them in spite of our differences. Christy argued persuasively that harnessing this skill can help us heal polarized divides in the U.S., and it can help us make progress toward collective decision-making.

Watch Christy’s lecture below to find out more. In her talk and the Q&A session afterwards, she talks directly about both the challenges related to the religious, racial, and political fractures in our society and the ways by which an empathic mindset can enable us to promote better understanding across those divisions.

Faith, Race & Politics: Can empathy help bridge our divides in a polarized world?

Christy also led a workshop about promoting empathic intelligence in the classroom and other contexts. If you didn’t catch the workshop but would like to find out more, whether you’re an educator or a student, you can watch it below.

Empathic Intelligence: What it is and how to cultivate it in the classroom and beyond

It is our hope that these resources will go some way toward healing our divides and enabling us to solve our collective problems together. Follow us on your favorite social media site, and we hope to see you at our future events!