DCI’s First-Ever Watch Party: Tuning into UNC Chapel Hill’s Expert Roundtable on Presidents, Institutions, and the People

Photo of audience watching screens at Watch Party

On October 30, 2025, the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative hosted its first-ever watch party of an expert roundtable held not at Davidson College, but on another college campus. UNC Chapel Hill’s Program for Public Discourse hosted the second event in the American Values Deliberative Forum Series on “Balancing Self-Government and National Stability: The Case of Presidents, Institutions, and the People.” Approximately 50 Davidson students, faculty, staff, and community members gathered in Hance Auditorium to view the nearly two hour conversation — and more joined via UNC’s livestream via Zoom.

The panelists on this roundtable included Thomas Frank (best-selling author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?) and John Gastil (professor of communication studies, public policy, and political science at Penn State). Unfortunately the third panelist, Jennifer Mascott (professor of law and founder of the Separation of Powers Institute at Catholic University, was unable to attend at the last minute due to travel challenges, UNC Chapel Hill professor of political science Kevin McGuire served as the moderator of the panel discussion, which was followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

250^th Anniversary American Values Deliberative Forum Series

This event is the second Expert Roundtable in the 250^th Anniversary American Values Deliberative Forum Series, which is designed to commemorate the upcoming 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This anniversary represents an important opportunity to both deepen and elevate the discourse about the values that have animated American social and political debates throughout its history. The goal of the series is to enable Americans of all backgrounds – college students, high school students, families and neighbors, members of faith communities and other civic organizations – to authentically, respectfully, and constructively engage with each other about our foundational ideals and how they are relevant to contemporary policy issues.

Co-hosted by Davidson College’s Deliberative Citizenship Initiative (DCI), Duke University’s Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Program for Public Discourse, this year-long program will include both Expert Roundtables and Community Conversations dedicated to unpacking, understanding, and applying the values that are foundational to the United States – and to many other countries around the world.

Community Conversations

During the week after the roundtable, both Davidson and UNC Chapel Hill hosted Community Conversations for members of their communities to discuss the same issues covered by the panelists. At Davidson, these conversations were part of the DCI’s D Team series, which involved 16 small groups — over 130 people — gathering to share their thoughts with each other both in-person and online, guided by student facilitators trained by the DCI.

The recording of the roundtable is posted below, as are some guides that you can use to host such conversations. The Deliberation Guide provides both important background information on the topics in question and a specific framework for engaging with these topics in the context of a two-hour facilitated conversation, which is the format that the DCI’s D Teams will use to explore the topic. The Issue Guide is similar to the Deliberation Guide but does not include the structured format for group conversations. The Issue Brief provides a brief outline of the main ideas that are presented in the Deliberation Guide and Issue Guide. While both include a similar list of questions to consider about the topic, they are designed for personal reflection before, during, or after our expert roundtable on the same topic.

Other institutions are welcome to use these resources to highlight their own conversations about the important issues covered in this forum. For ideas on how to host such a discussion, check out the webinar that DCI Faculty Director Graham Bullock hosted that provides an overview of different strategies and options that might work well in different organizational and community contexts. Please email dci@davidson.edu if you have any questions or ideas you’d like to share.