Monthly Archives: August 2015

Recap of Confab Call with “21st Century Democracy” Authors

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Earlier this month, we had yet another great NCDD Confab Call, this time with 55 of our members. We had a ver informative presentation from and lively discussion with prominent D&D scholars Matt Leighninger and Tina Nabatchi, all of which was centered on the lessons on public participation infrastructure that they’ve compiled into Confab bubble imagetheir new book, Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy.

If you didn’t participate in this one, you really missed out! The discussion was so lively and the questions were so rich that we couldn’t even fit it all into the 60 minute call. But don’t worry, we recorded the presentation and discussion, which you can see and hear by clicking here.

Want to learn more about Matt & Tina’s work on public participation? You can find some great downloads from their book at http://bit.ly/PP21CDresources.

Looking for more confab inspiration? We encourage you to check out some of our past Confab Calls for more great conversations and ideas.

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Delusions of Genocide & the Real Thing

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On returning home from Germany, I was startled to hear a voicemail from a white supremacist campaigning for President. It repeated the old trope that there is a genocide being perpetrated on the white race. In the United States, we often throw around words like “Nazi” and “genocide.” Seinfeld’s funny “Soup Nazi” story is one thing, but ridiculous demonizing of political opposition is another. The Iowa Tea Party offered one blatant example, but so do national commentators warning of “liberal fascism” or labeling conservatives “Nazis.” We should sober up and remember what real genocide looks like.

This is a photo of some of the ovens made to dispose of bodies at the Dachau concentration camp.

Some of the ovens made to dispose of bodies at the Dachau concentration camp.

In Democracy and Leadership, one of the key virtues of democratic leadership I wrote about is moderation. Today people so often dismiss moderation, seeing it as a weakness of will, as a lack of principled character. I find that view tragic, as it inspires such polarization that even the Federal government was shut down in 2013, despite the fact that the world is watching and the credit rating for U.S. debt was downgraded in 2011. Unstable societies are risky investments, as are unjust societies.

Moderation proves to be one of the deepest challenges for democratic societies, I argued more recently in my forthcoming Uniting Mississippi. Moderation is the virtue that aims to achieve unity. If you can’t moderate differences, unified groups tear apart and become several, rather than one. At the same time, of course, there can be delusional, hateful, or simply ridiculous ideas about unity. One of them is the white supremacist’s outlook.

The white supremacist thinks that there’s a need for greater unity among white people as a race. It is one thing when a group has systematically been targeted and oppressed, such as in slavery, the Holocaust, or Apartheid. Such group solidarity in those conditions is understandable, for people need to express pride and unity in their identities as survivors of horrible atrocities and continuing prejudice. Even in such cases, however, no reasonable group calls for purity of its race. Only white supremacists believe that interracial marriage is a threat to a race.

A photo of the entrance to the gas chamber at the Dachau concentration camp, which was deceptively marked "Showers," in German.

A little over a week ago, I had the sobering opportunity to visit a real genocidal institution. The Dachau concentration camp was built for holding around 5-6 thousand imprisoned workers. By the end of World War II, it held 32,000. To deal with the mass of people and to quell their number, the Germans had created gas chambers, which could kill large groups at once. To avoid resistance to entering the gas chamber at Dachau, the Germans had labeled the door “Brausebad” – “Shower.”

Once people were killed, they were moved to the ovens, photographed in the featured image above. Part of what was so disturbing in all of this was the thoughtful reasoning that went into controlling people and disposing of them. To convince people that the “Brausebad” really was a shower, and not a gas chamber, the Nazis had installed false shower heads. For the visitors like myself, the covers were removed from many of the shower heads, revealing a closed cone above. There was no water pipe. This was simply the illusion meant to make it easier to slaughter people. Here is a photo of the covered and uncovered shower heads, side by side:

Side-by-side image of the false shower heads installed in the Dachau gas chamber, to fool people, making it easier to get them to enter the room.

Having visited the truly disturbing and sobering Dachau camp, all I could think was that the white supremacists campaigning for President are tragically misguided and absurd. Some people are so lacking in sense that they actually believe that white folks are under threat as a group. The level of such nonsense is deeply saddening.

The call I received was eerie, partly because the voice didn’t sound quite right. It was a woman’s voice, and it was somewhat realistic, but you could tell that the message was one of those recordings generated by a computer voice – just a pretty good one. It read a message that began with formulaic language I have received before from white supremacists. It said that there are countries for these kinds of people and those, so there should also be countries for white people.

Adding to the absurdity of the call is the fact that the United States is a highly religious country. In fact, the Ku Klux Klan now denies that it is a hate group. They have long called themselves Christians. It is long past time to remind people that such views call for seeing all people as kin, as children of the same God. Using the Christian religion in service of hate or disunity is a gross perversion, yet as I have argued, even in the most religious state in the U.S., Mississippians are recalcitrant even when religious leaders call for progress and unity.

We need to take the aim of unity seriously. We need to stop using demonizing language lightly and foolishly. We also need more people to see the effects of such crazy polarization and disunity, which have led even to campaigns for the Presidency from white supremacists. We don’t need delusions of genocide, when there are disturbing and tragic examples of the real thing.

To close, I thought about sharing with you a photo of a mountain of dead, skeleton-thin bodies. Instead, I’ll leave you with a photo I snapped at the Jewish memorial at Dachau, which was immensely beautiful and moving for me.

A photo I took from inside the Jewish memorial at the Dachau concentration camp.

Florida CUFA October Conference Call for Proposals!

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Good morning, friends in Civics and Social Studies. Dr. Scott Waring, who leads the new College and University Faculty Assembly branch of the Florida Council for the Social Studies, has asked me to share a call for proposals for the upcoming October conference. Please take the time to review the call, and if you are interested, you can click at the end of this sentence to download the FL-CUFA_Proposal_15. All proposals should be sent directly to Dr. Waring at swaring@ucf.edu. I encourage you to consider joining us in October!

Presentation Formats

Paper Presentations (50 minutes)

An individual paper presentation gives authors an opportunity to present abbreviated versions of their empirical or theoretical/conceptual scholarship. After the papers are presented, a discussant will offer commentary on key revelations, vexations, and themes raised by the papers, and a chairperson will moderate questions and responses by audience members. For the sake of effective presentation and discussion, individual papers should be limited to 3,000 words, excluding references. The typical structure for a session with two papers includes a brief introduction by the chairperson, 15 minutes for each author’s presentation, 10 minutes for the discussant’s commentary, and 10 minutes of audience participation.

Symposium Sessions (50 minutes)

A symposium offers presenters, discussants, and audience members the opportunity to explore a particular problem or theme from various perspectives. Organizers of symposium sessions typically establish the topic, identify and solicit participation from appropriate scholars, and assemble and submit a single proposal representing the collective work of participants. Symposium proposals should include no more than four participants. The organizer must obtain permission and input from each individual represented in a symposium proposal. Symposium proposals must specify a discussant for the session. All presenters in a symposium should submit to the discussant a paper or commentary addressing the central theme or questions under consideration; symposium papers should be limited to 3,000 words. The chair, presenters, and discussant will determine how time is to be allocated during symposiums.

Contemporary Issues Dialogue (50 minutes)

The contemporary issues dialogue format offers conference attendees an opportunity to explore contemporary issues or dilemmas in social education via a unique forum not represented by paper sessions and symposiums. Contemporary issues dialogues can include informal discussions, town hall meetings, roundtables, papers-in-progress, structured poster sessions, research planning and methodological activities, video presentations and performances, and book talks. Sessions that promote active participation and open dialogue among audience members are strongly encouraged. Proposal authors will determine how time is to be allocated during contemporary issues dialogues.

Research-Into-Practice Sessions (50 minutes)

Research-into-practice sessions offer FL-CUFA members the opportunity to discuss and demonstrate the implications of research for educational practice. Given their association with the regular FCSS Conference program, audience members typically are classroom teachers, teacher educators, supervisors, and school administrators. With that audience in mind, presentations should feature scholarly, yet accessible, discussions and activities of interest to practicing educators. Proposal authors will determine how time is to be allocated during research into practice sessions.

Submission Guidelines

Presenters must provide, in an email to the Program Chair, Scott Waring (swaring@ucf.edu), the following:

  1. The names of all presenters and corresponding affiliations
  2. Lead presenter’s mailing address, email, and phone number
  3. A PDF or Microsoft Word compatible document, as described below, that includes a narrative of 3,000 words or fewer, excluding title, abstract, and references.

Because proposals will be reviewed in a blind peer review process, please do not include the names or affiliations of authors and presenters in the proposal document and ensure that no identifying information is embedded in the proposal document as metadata.

The Program Chair reserves the right to reject without review any proposal that exceeds the 3,000-word limit. The Program Chair reserves the right to disqualify submissions in which authors’ identifying information is revealed.

The submission deadline is Monday, August 31, 2015 11:59 p.m. No submissions will be accepted after that date and time.

Individual Paper and Symposium Proposal Contents

Each proposal should include the following elements: a) the title; b) an abstract of 35 words or less; c) the purposes and/or objectives of the study; d) the theoretical framework or perspective; e) research design and/or methods of inquiry; f) findings or arguments and their warrants; g) the importance of the work’s contribution to scholarship; and h) references. To preserve the integrity of the blind peer review process, please do not include the names or affiliations of authors and presenters in the proposal document. The Program Chair reserves the right to disqualify submissions in which authors’ identifying information is revealed. The review criteria will incorporate the clarity, organization, and perceived scholarly significance of elements c) through g) above.

Contemporary Issues Dialogue and Research Into Practice (RIP) Proposal Contents

Contemporary Issues Dialogue and RIP session proposals should include the following elements, as appropriate: a) the title of ten words or less; b) an abstract of 35 words or less; c) the purposes and objectives of the session; d) theory and research in which the session is grounded; e) methods of presentation or modes of activity for the session; f) findings or arguments and their warrants; and g) references.

To preserve the integrity of the blind peer review process, please do not include the names or affiliations of authors and presenters in the proposal document. The Program Chair reserves the right to disqualify submissions in which authors’ identifying information is revealed. The review criteria will incorporate the clarity, organization, and perceived significance of elements c) through f) above.

Participation Requirements

It is expected that all authors or presenters represented in a proposal will register for the FCSS Annual Meeting and attend and participate in conference sessions. If an emergency or other unforeseen circumstance precludes a participant from attending, she or he should immediately contact the Program Chair, Scott Waring, at swaring@ucf.edu. To promote diversity among perspectives and participants, no presenter shall appear as author or co-author on more than two proposals, or as chair or discussant on more than two proposals.


Position Opening at Convergence Center for Policy Resolution

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We recently heard about another job opening that would be an excellent fit for many of our NCDD members, this time from the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution. Convergence is seeking a Program Director for their project on federal budget process reform.

The Director position promises to be engaging and, if the project is successful, has the potential to be impactful on a national scale.

Here’s how Convergence describes it:

The Director will be responsible for launching and managing a new project at Convergence focused on reaching a consensus among major stakeholder groups on the principles of a new framework for developing federal budgets.

The Director will develop and execute project strategy; oversee budget, performance measures, and project timeline; cultivate relationships with stakeholders; oversee consultants, project associates, and others; manage “dialogue a leading to action” with high level influencers and policy thinkers in the federal budget arena; facilitate the creation and implementation of solutions; and advance  the project through fundraising.

You can read more about the position and how to apply by visiting www.convergencepolicy.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/01/Budget-Process-Director-Job-Announcement-July-2015.pdf.

Thanks to NCDD Founding Member Joe Goldman for passing news of the opening along to us! Good luck to all the applicants!