The DCI hosts a Deliberative Citizenship Speaker Series that introduces the Davidson community to different theoretical and practical approaches to deliberation from similar initiatives and the deliberative democracy, civic republicanism and other related literatures.
Speakers with both academic and practitioner backgrounds are invited to give public lectures, meet with interested students, staff, faculty, and community members, and consult with the DCI Co-Conveners and Fellows on the work of the initiative.
Our most recent speaker was Christy Vines, the President and CEO of Ideos Institute and Executive Producer of the documentary film Dialogue Lab: America. During her campus visit, Christy met with multiple student groups, led two workshops, and gave one public lecture on Faith, Race & Politics: Can empathy help bridge our divides in a polarized world?. She spoke extensively about empathic intelligence, the focus of much of her organization’s current work. Read more about her visit and watch her talks at this link.
As another example, the DCI and Davidson’s Bonner Scholars Program co-sponsored two events featuring Citizen University CEO Eric Liu in Spring 2023. The first was a public lecture by Mr. Liu in the Lilly Gallery that was attended by over 100 online (via Zoom and YouTube) and in-person guests. The theme of his talk was “From Isolation to Community: A Commitment to Rehumanize and Revive our Democracy.”
After his keynote address, Liu led a smaller interactive conversation exploring the key insights from the Better Arguments Project, a national civic initiative that he helped create to “bridge divides – not by papering over those divides but by helping people have better arguments.” During his visit, Liu was also able to meet and talk with several Davidson students, faculty, staff, and community members about their work and questions related to deliberation and building a healthier democracy.
In the spring of 2022, the DCI and Davidson College Writing Program are sponsored a public lecture, “Democracy and Freedom of Expression: Revitalizing Public Discourse on Campus and Beyond,” featuring Leila Brammer, Director of the Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse at the University of Chicago. Dr. Brammer also delivered a presentation of “Democratic Discourse in the Classroom: Lessons from the University of Chicago’s Parrhesia Program” to a smaller audience of Davidson faculty, staff, students, and alums.
In the spring of 2021, the DCI and Davidson College Writing Program hosted Debra Hawhee, McCourtney Professor of Civic Deliberation at Penn State University. Dr. Hawhee delivered two lectures: “Imagining Our Shared Future: Rhetoric, Deliberation, and Democratic Life,” and “The Original-Scholar Athlete: Athletics and Rhetoric in Ancient Greece.”
In the fall of 2020, we hosted an online guest lecture and workshop series with Dr. Martín Carcasson, Founder and Director of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University. He delivered a public lecture: “From Phttps://cpd.colostate.edu/olarized to Collaborative: A Deliberation-in-Action Lecture” and offered three workshops: “Deliberative Pedagogy and Program Design,” “Facilitation Skills for Community Leaders and Organizations,” and “Deliberative Leadership and Polarity Management.”
In the fall of 2019, we hosted Professor Sara Drury, who is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Wabash College and the Director of the Wabash Democracy and Public Discourse. Dr. Drury delivered a public lecture on “Can Deliberation Make a Difference? Lessons Learned from Wabash College’s Democracy and Public Discourse Initiative,” and met with the DCI’s leaders and working groups during her visit.
