Category Archives: higher ed

Peace Education Center in MI holds community dialogues on Poverty and Wealth in April

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We are pleased to highlight the post below about two great events this week and next week in Michigan, which came from NCDD Sustaining Member and 2012 NCDD Catalyst Award winner John Spady of the National Dialogue Network. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

NDN logoFrom John: Here is an exciting message from Terry Link in Lansing, Michigan, to the National Dialogue Network (NDN) which describes upcoming community events at Michigan State University (on April 4, 2014) and Lansing Community College (on April 9, 2014) that are organized by the Peace Education Center and co-sponsored by big name community supporters.

You can read the message below or visit www.NationalDialogueNetwork.org/?p=851 for the original.

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Hello John,

Just wanted to let you know that we finally have all the pieces aligned to run the NDN program on Poverty and Wealth here in Lansing, MI. We have two sessions organized – the first at MSU for the larger campus community , nearly 60,000 potential participants, although we’ll be happy with any more than 50. The second to be held at the local community college on downtown Lansing. The local Peace Education Center is the organizing force for both (I am a board member) but as you will see from the flyers we’ve solicited co-sponsorship from different entities for each event.

We hope to have the surveys completed and will find volunteers to submit them online back to NDN. We will also be doing an interview in advance of the events on our public radio station’s public affairs show at a date yet to be determined. I will keep you both posted as we move ahead. I will be travelling March 13-27, so you likely won’t hear anything further back from me until I return. Below is the note I sent out to campus sponsors this morning. For more info see the website www.peaceedcenter.org

All good things,
Terry Link

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The problem of an ever expanding disparity between the “have’s” and the “have-not’s” has become the issue of the day.

Please join us in a respectful conversation about a problem that affects us all. We will use a process and materials designed by the National Dialogue Network, funded by a grant from the National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation. Seated in small groups, we will listen to each other’s perspectives to further our own understanding of the concerns and possibilities surrounding this important issue.

There will be two sessions, one for the Michigan State University (MSU) community and a second one for the larger Lansing community.

MSU Session, April 4th, 3–5pm, MSU Main Library, North Conference Room, 4th Floor West.

This event co-sponsored College of Communication Arts and Sciences, College of Social Science, Residential College of Arts and Humanities, Peace and Justice Studies program, Philosophy, and the Peace Education Center of Greater Lansing.

Seating is limited, so to reserve a seat please send your name and email to: hesslin2@msu.edu. The event flyer can be downloaded here.

Greater Lansing Community Session, April 9th, 7-9pm, Lansing Community College, Administration Building Board Room. 

This event is hosted by Lansing Community College and sponsored by the Peace Education Center, Michigan League for Public Policy, Capital Area District Library, Power of We Consortium, Justice & Peace Task Force at Edgewood United Church, League of Women Voters – Lansing Area, Red Cedar Friends Meeting, and Common Cause of Michigan. 

Seating is limited, so to reserve a seat please send your name and email to: pec.comments@gmail.com. The event flyer can be downloaded here.

NIFI Announces New “Linked Futures” Deliberations

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We wanted to make sure that NCDD members, especially those in higher ed, saw the most recent edition of Higher Education Engagement News, the periodic update on the American Commonwealth Partnership from Harry C. Boyte. This edition announces a new stage of the collaboration between the Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forums Institute – both NCDD organizational members – that builds on the Shaping Our Futures initiative. You can read the newsletter below or find it at the NIFI blog by clicking here.

Make sure to note that it’s not too late to be part of the “framework testing phase”, so if you are interested in facilitating a test deliberation around the future of higher ed as part of this new project, find the details for how to get involved below.

NIF-logo

March 2014 Higher Education Engagement News

Higher Education Engagement News is a periodic newsletter, edited by Harry C. Boyte, which responds to requests for updates and information about initiatives associated with the American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP). ACP was a coalition to strengthen the public purposes of higher education, organized for the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act establishing land grant colleges in 2012, on invitation by the White House Office of Public Engagement.

This issue is devoted to Linked Futures – Communities, Higher Education and the Changing World of Work, a new deliberation being developed in association with the Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forums. Linked Futures builds on the earlier Shaping Our Futures, 150 forums across the country on the public purposes of higher education. The Linked Futures deliberation will address the crucial question of how to think collectively about changes and challenges often described as an avalanche, which often seem overwhelming. The project is described below.

We are in the “framework testing phase” for the next month (until April 11th). This involves having small groups test how the framework works. The framework gives more detail on the three options described below, but is not a full National Issues Forum “issue guide,” like Shaping Our Futures.

If you are interested in getting in on the ground floor of this deliberation by testing the framework, please contact Harry Boyte (boyte@umn.edu) and copy our project administrator, Hunter Gordon (gordo430@umn.edu), who will keep track. If you want to test the framework we will send it to you, along with facilitator guidelines and an optional questionnaire.

Linked Futures – Communities, Higher Education, and the Changing World of Work

Linked Futures builds on Shaping Our Future – How Should Higher Education Help Us Create the Society We Want?, a National Issues Forum and American Commonwealth Partnership public deliberation launched at a National Press Club event on September 4, 2012, with Undersecretary Martha Kanter and higher education and civic leaders including David Mathews, president of Kettering Foundation, Muriel Howard, President of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Scott Peters, Co-director of Imagining America, Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of Syracuse University, and others. Shaping Our Future convened more than 150 forums across the country, bringing together college students, parents, faculty, employers, retirees, policy makers and others to deliberate about the purpose of higher education and its roles in the society.

The findings, described in Divided We Fail, a report by Jean Johnson of the public opinion and engagement group Public Agenda, revealed a gap between the ways in which lay citizens outside the policy making arena talk about higher education, and the debate among elected officials and other policy makers. As Johnson puts it, “Facing a more competitive international economy and relentlessly rising college costs, leaders say now is the moment for higher education to reinvent itself.”  In contrast, “Forum participants spoke repeatedly about the benefits of a rich, varied college education…where, in their view, students have time and space to explore new ideas and diverse fields.”  Lay citizens emphasized the need to broaden, not narrow, STEM education and preparation for other careers, in the context of rapidly changing work roles and globalized workplaces.

The next stage is Linked Futures. A design team with representatives of six Twin Cities institutions– Augsburg College, Century College, Hamline University, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Metropolitan State University, and St. Paul College – working with the Kettering Foundation gathered concerns from hundreds of citizens in different settings. They addressed the question, “How can communities and higher education work together to address the changing world of work?”  A framework is being tested with three options to consider:

• Prepare Students for the Job Market:  Our colleges and universities have to raise academic expectations, tailor their programs to the real needs of employers, and direct more of their educational resources toward vocational and pre-professional training.

• Change Jobs for the Better. Many of the positions available to new graduates are poorly paid, offer little in the way of job security or job satisfaction, and are vulnerable to downsizing and outsourcing. Colleges and universities should take the lead in shaping a new kind of workplace…and a new kind of worker, one with the skills and habits of mind needed to thrive in a complex and rapidly changing world.

• Be a Good Partner to the Community. Colleges and universities represent vital anchor institutions, places where the community gathers, engages issues, organizes activities and makes common cause. We depend on them to provide the civic and intellectual leadership that can strengthen democracy and drive long-term social and economic progress.

The Linked Futures issue guide will be ready from the National Issues Forum Institute in September.

Montreal Symposium on Professionalizing Our Field

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We recently heard about an exciting conference happening in Montreal this July that we want to make sure our NCDD members know about. The conference, hosted by the Canadian Institut du Nouveau Monde, takes place during the IPSA’s annual gathering, and is part of the important conversation about the professional future of our field. Check out the announcement below or find out more at the IPSA’s conference website here.

INM logoThe Institut du Nouveau Monde, a Canadian nongovernmental organization dedicated to public participation, is pleased to invite NCDD members to attend a symposium entitled “Developing expertise in the design of participatory tools: The professionalization and diversification of the public participation field”, that will be held in Montreal July 21-22, 2014 during the annual conference of International Political Science Association (IPSA).

The symposium intends to better understand the conditions involved in the negotiation of the participatory design by looking at the actors that initiate and organize public participation. What are the effects of this professionalization of public participation? Does it compromise or encourage the democratic aims associated with public participation? Is it better to use private consultants, to train public servants to oversee public participation, or to set up an autonomous public organization devoted to public participation? How does the approach that public participation professionals take affect their abilities to design effective public participation mechanisms? The approach chosen to answer these questions is a dialogue between researchers and practitioners for a heuristic confrontation of knowledge and experiences.

About twenty researchers are expected to participate in the scientific segments of the two-day programme (see “Panels” in the preliminary programme). Other segments of the Symposium, the “Round Table” and the “Open Space”, mean to engage with public participation practitioners. Our guest practitioners for the Round Table are:

  • Simon Burral, Executive Director of Involve (London, UK)
  • Carolyn Lukensmeyer, AmericaSpeaks Founding Member and Director and Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (Washington D.C., USA)
  • Peter MacLeod, Principal and Co-founder of MASS LBP (Ontario, Canada)
  • Michel Venne, General Director of the Institut du Nouveau Monde (Québec, Canada)

You can view the preliminary program for more information.

Please don’t hesitate to forward this invitation through to anyone you think would be interested to come to Montreal to assist to this symposium. The more practitioners present, the more interesting the discussions will be!

Upon interest, there are two registration options:

  • Participation to this symposium ONLY (July 21-22th) costs $40 per individual (special event rate).
  • Participation to the ENTIRE IPSA Congress (access to all activities July 19-24) is $260 for early registration.

If you choose option 1, send an email to malorie.flon@inm.qc.ca and she will inform the IPSA secretariat to send you a special registration link.

If you choose option 2, you can now register on the IPSA website: www.ipsa.org/events/congress/montreal2014/registration. You will have to pay the association membership fee ($160 for a regular member, $50 for students). We hope to see you there!

You can find the preliminary program for this conference at www.ncdd.org/main/wp-content/uploads/IPSA-Prelim-Program.pdf. More information on the IPSA annual gathering is available at www.ipsa.org/events/congress/montreal2014/theme.

Register for SDCN’s PULSE Retreat by Mar. 17th

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We are pleased to highlight a new college-based initiative from the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD) – an NCDD organizational member. They will be launching the PULSE sustained dialogue retreat for college students this July 20-25 in Lewisburg, PA. The deadline for application is March 17th, so we highly encourage our members to apply today! You read more about the PULSE gathering below or by visiting the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network website here.

SDCNThe International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD) is thrilled to announce the creation of PULSE - a new college retreat program designed to explore identity, leadership, and inclusion and prepare students to tackle the challenges of a global 21st century. PULSE is the latest addition to our work with campuses to build more inclusive and engaged environments and shape life-long leaders and problem solvers.

With generous support from the Roger I. and Ruth B. MacFarlane Foundation, the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN), the college campus initiative of IISD, is organizing the inaugural PULSE Institute to be held this summer…

To build PULSE, SDCN is incorporating cutting-edge research and lessons learned from innovative programs nationwide. One of the models of engagement informing PULSE is Common Ground, a program developed by students at Duke University in 2003, involving a four-day, student-led immersion retreat off-campus dedicated to exploring human relations (e.g., race, gender, class, sexuality, faith) through personal and group experiential activities and dialogue…

At the PULSE Institute, teams of students, faculty, and administrators from ten schools will experience the retreat curriculum firsthand while fine tuning Sustained Dialogue skills and practicing mindfulness and effective leadership. At the conclusion of the retreat, participants will learn how to implement this new model on their respective campuses with a peer-led, student-facilitated, and administrator-supported approach. PULSE is open to all US-based colleges and universities, including the 27 Sustained Dialogue Campus Network schools. The inaugural Institute will be held July 20 – 25, 2014 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. Application details are available on the SDCN website.

The PULSE retreat program will forge deep relationships among participants, encourage intense and meaningful exploration of structural inequities, strengthen critical thinking and mindfulness skills, and develop other global competencies. Returning to campus, small groups will continue to meet to address through sustainable action projects the issues identified at PULSE. This model – retreat + continued conversation – aligns with current research demonstrating that an intense, immersive experience followed by sustained engagement is the best way to create attitudinal and behavioral change.

Integrating the principles of programs like Common Ground and Sustained Dialogue builds on complementary strengths and bolsters SDCN’s mission of creating social change agents on campuses, in communities, and in workplaces long after graduation. For example:

  • Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, the majority will always adopt their belief. With this strategy, we want to directly touch 10% of each campus and 10% of higher education institutions.
  • PULSE + Sustained Dialogue consistently contributes to the development of strong student leaders, new campus initiatives, and more inclusive community norms. The campus and wider community benefit from students’ new knowledge and relationships.
  • Workplaces and communities across the country will benefit from alumni skilled in sustained dialogue. Employers rank the ability to “solve problems and make decisions, resolve conflict and negotiate, cooperate with others, and listen actively” as skills most desired – and most deficient – in entry-level workers. These are outcomes of PULSE + Sustained Dialogue.

For more information about this initiative and the Institute application process, please visit the PULSE page on our website or contact PULSE Director Christopher Scoville at scoville@sdcampusnetwork.org.

About IISD and SDCN

The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD) is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 that develops everyday leaders who engage differences as strengths to improve their campuses, workplaces, and communities. A primary initiative of IISD is the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN), which engages 27 campuses (in the US and six countries worldwide), 4,500 students, and 4,000 alumni annually. SDCN participants meet weekly for results-oriented dialogue, building relationships around topics such as race, class, gender, and faith, while simultaneously addressing pressing needs in their communities.

The five-stage, dialogue-to-action model of Sustained Dialogue is based on the work of Dr. Harold Saunders and includes identifying who needs to be involved in a continued process in order to leverage change (stage 1), building trust and transforming relationships among group participants (stage 2), identifying root causes of issues in the community (stage 3), envisioning future scenarios to address the root cause (stage 4), and working together to enact change (stage 5).

Full details on the PULSE retreat are available at www.sdcampusnetwork.org/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/6999.

Job Opportunities for Senior and Lead Facilitators/Mediators with Center for Collaborative Policy

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We are pleased to highlight the post below, which came from Susan Sherry of the Center for Collaborative Policy, an NCDD organizational member, via our Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

The Center for Collaborative Policy, California State University, Sacramento is pleased to announce that is is now recruiting for both a Senior-Level and a Lead-Level Mediator/ Facilitator. Both of these positions call for a professional with demonstrated experience in mediating, facilitating and managing projects involving complex public policy and political issues that engage a diverse range of stakeholders and the public.

For detailed information and to view duties, qualifications and the application process, see www.csus.edu/about/employment. All submissions are done electronically through this University link. Application review will begin on March 7, 2014 and continue until the positions are filled.

If you would like a one-page summary of the job announcement, including the differences between the Senior and Lead positions, please make your request to: frontdesk@ccp.csus.edu

We would be very grateful if you could pass this announcement onto your professional colleagues in the field.

The Center for Collaborative Policy, established in 1992, is a self-supporting unit of the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies at California State University, Sacramento. The Center’s mission is to build the capacity of public agencies, stakeholder groups, and the public to use collaborative strategies to improve policy outcomes. With an exceptional track record of success that has been well documented in both academic and public media accounts, the Center works on many of California’s most challenging public policy issues such as governance and fiscal reform, social and health services, natural resources, water, land use, air quality, transportation, and emergency services and homeland security.

The successful candidate will join a team of respected and highly qualified professionals who are committed to advancing the art and science of collaborative public policy making.

For more information, see the Center’s website: www.csus.edu/ccp.

Conflict Management Opening at KIPCOR

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We were recently made aware of a position opening with the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution that would be a great fit for many of our NCDD members, so we wanted to share it with you. You can find more information about the position below.

The Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (KIPCOR), an institute at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, invites applications for the position of Conflict Management Practitioner and Trainer.  This is a full-time position with benefits.  The starting time for this position will be negotiated with the successful applicant, but will need to be on or before July 1, 2014.

This position has widely varied tasks that will include third-party intervention work in both interpersonal and group/organizational conflict, as well as designing, preparing materials, and leading intensive trainings, workshops and courses.  As in most small non-profit offices, additional tasks related to social media management, scheduling logistics, networking, and miscellaneous office tasks will also be expected.  Specific work areas may be assigned based on the education and skill-set of the person selected for this position.  A master’s degree in a related field or a law degree is required, as is significant specialized training in conflict resolution. The successful applicant must be comfortable working with and advocating for an organization that focuses on peace, social justice, and conflict resolution.

For a full description of this position and the application process, go to www.kipcor.org/Careers/Conflict-Management-Practitioner.php. For more information about KIPCOR go to www.kipcor.org.

Sustained Dialogue Campus Network Conference March 7-9

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We are excited to announce that the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network will be hosting its annual conference this March 7th – 9th, and NCDD members, especially those working in higher education, are invited! This year’s gathering is being hosted at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and promises to be a great opportunity to deepen our work on campus and connect with campus dialogue practitioners from around the country.

The conference will be attended by NCDD members like Phil Neisser, Jacob Hess, Mark Gerzon, Carolyn Lukensmeyer, and Len & Libby Traubman, and hopefully, you! In addition, our very own NCDD director, Sandy Heierbacher, will be offering a dialogue and deliberation workshop AND hosting a breakfast or dinner for NCDD members who attend the gathering, so make sure to email Sandy at sandy@ncdd.org to let her know you plan on attending.

Whether or not your are doing sustained dialogue work on campus, this conference has a lot to offer:

The Sustained Dialogue Conference is an unparalleled opportunity to come together as a Network and learn from student leaders, administrators, alumni, and supporters from across the country. This year’s Conference, featuring expert guest speakers from social justice, dialogue, and civic engagement fields, will energize you for a strong semester of “dialogue-to-action” and will prepare you to meet your 2014 goals.

Specifically, at the Summit, you will:

  • Learn from and be inspired by the diverse network of individuals engaging in SD across the nation
  • Build your skill-set around moving from dialogue to action using the SD model
  • Exchange practices for tools to build more inclusive communities
  • Create a work plan of how to maximize Sustained Dialogue as a student group on your campus

Not doing SD? You’re invited too! We welcome those who are engaged in other dialogue and conflict resolution programs as well as those who are interested in starting SD in their context.

The registration deadline is this Saturday, February 15th, so make sure to register today! NCDD members should register as “Community Members” for $65 per day you attend.

You can find more information on the Sustained Dialogue Conference at their website by clicking here, or by checking out the conference trailer that SDCN created:

We hope to see you there!

ADP Civic Engagement Award Nominations & National Meeting Announced

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ADP logo

Our friends with the American Democracy Project have been busy recently, and we wanted to make sure to update our NCDD members on a few important things they have coming up – namely, two civic engagement award nomination processes and the 2014 ADP national meeting.

First, we want to let our higher education-based members know that the ADP has opened its nomination period for both of its annual civic engagement awards, both with an April 11th deadline for nominations. The two awards are described below:

The William M. Plater Award for Leadership In Civic Engagement is given in recognition of exemplary leadership in advancing the civic learning of undergraduates through programs and activities that encourage greater knowledge, skills, experiences and reflection about the role of citizens in a democracy. The Award is given each year to an AASCU chief academic officer (e.g., Provosts or Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs) in recognition of his or her leadership in advancing the civic mission of the campus… the award acknowledges the critical leadership role that chief academic officers play in helping make an institution intentional about its public mission to prepare undergraduates as informed, engaged citizens.

You can find more details on the William M. Plater Award and download the nomination form here.

The second award is similar, but aimed at up and coming of higher ed civic leaders:

The John Saltmarsh Award for Emerging Leaders in Civic Engagement is given in recognition of exemplary early-career leaders who are advancing the wider civic engagement movement through higher education to build a broader public culture of democracy. The award is given annually to an exemplary early-career leader at an AASCU institution (e.g., tenure track faculty member, staff or adjunct in first five years of career)… It recognizes John’s long-standing passion for nurturing and preparing the next generation of civic leaders to sustain and advance the civic engagement movement.

Details on the John Saltmarsh Award and the nomination form can be found here.

The winners of both of these awards will be announced at 2014 American Democracy Project and The Democracy Commitment National Meeting, which will take place from June 5th – 7th this year in Louisville, Kentucky.

The 2014 meeting theme is “Forging Civic Pathways for Students Between Our Institutions” and addresses the many ways in which we foster and might build more coherent civic learning and engagement experiences for students on our own campuses and those transferring between our two-year and four-year institutions.

The gathering will be a great place to connect with other engagement- and civics-focused leaders and scholars in higher education, so we encourage you to save the date. You can find more information on the gathering and registration here. There is also a call for presentation proposals for the conference, which will be open until February 16th, and we encourage you to submit your proposal by clicking here.

Good luck to all the award nominees, and we hope to see you at the conference!

Sixth Annual Summer Institute of Civic Studies

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I am excited to share an announcement from NCDD supporting member Dr. Peter Levine about what has become an powerful tradition in our field – the Summer Institute of Civic Studies. I personally participated in the institute two years ago, and it was a pivotal experience for me that I highly recommend to anyone interested in a deeper understanding of citizenship and civic engagement.

We also encourage you to consider attending the Frontiers of Democracy conference directly after the Summer Institute. Both are wonderful experiences and great chances to network with leaders on the cutting edge of civic innovation. Find out more below or at the Summer Institute website.

Tufts-logoThe sixth annual Summer Institute of Civic Studies will be an intensive, two-week, interdisciplinary seminar bringing together advanced graduate students, faculty, and practitioners from diverse fields of study.

Organized by Peter Levine, Tisch College, and Karol Sołtan, University of Maryland, the Summer Institute features guest seminars by distinguished colleagues from various institutions and engages participants in challenging discussions such as:

  • What kinds of citizens (if any) do good regimes need?
  • What should such citizens know, believe, and do?
  • What practices and institutional structures promote the right kinds of citizenship?
  • What ought to be the relationships among empirical evidence, ethics, and strategy?

The syllabus for the fifth annual seminar (in 2013) is here. The 2014 syllabus will be modified but will largely follow this outline. You can also read more about the motivation for the Institute in this overview page on civic studies.

The daily sessions will take place from July 7-17, 2014, at the Tufts campus in Medford, MA. The seminar will be followed by a public conference – “Frontiers of Democracy 2014” – that will conclude on July 18 at 6 pm. Participants in the institute are required to stay for the public conference. See information on the 2013 conference here.

Tuition for the Institute is free, but students are responsible for their own housing and transportation. A Tufts University dormitory room can be rented for $230-$280/week. Credit is not automatically offered but special arrangements for graduate credit may be possible.

To apply for the 2014 seminar, please send an email with an explanation of your background and interests plus a resume/CV and a graduate transcript to Peter Levine (peter.levine@tufts.edu). For best consideration, apply no later than March 15, 2014.

For more information, visit http://activecitizen.tufts.edu/civic-studies/summer-institute.

“The Power of Conversation” Seminar at Columbia, Jan. 27th

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We hope our members in the New York region will take a moment to read the post below, which came from NCDD Sustaining Member Ron Gross of the University Seminar on Education at Columbia University via our great Submit-to-Blog Form. Do you have news you want to share with the NCDD network? Just click here to submit your news post for the NCDD Blog!

THE POWER OF CONVERSATION, a Seminar with Ronald Gross, will be held on Monday, January 27, 2014, 7:00-9:00 pm, at Faculty House, Columbia University, 117th St. & Morningside Heights in NYC.

Kindly RSVP to reserve a place, to grossassoc@aol.com Please bring this invitation and a photo ID for admission to the building.

Gross co-chairs the University Seminar on Innovation in Education; and is the founder of Conversations New York, and author, Socrates’ Way, Peak Learning, Radical School Reform, etc.

THE POWER OF CONVERSATION has propelled critical inquiry through the ages, from Socrates’ dialogues in the Athenian agora, to Occupy in Zuccoti Park.

Now, it is being harnessed afresh to foster not only civic discourse, but to enhance psychological well-being, strengthen learning (formal and informal), stimulate organizational development, and spark creativity.

This conversation will:

  • Review ten important benefits of Conversation as established by theory, research, and practice.
  • Trace the historical roots of Conversation in 17th century Salons, 18th century coffee houses, 19th century scientific societies, and 20th century social change movements such as Occupy.
  • Report briefly on 15 current projects and programs such as Meet-Up, Socrates Salons, Philosophers’ Cafes, Circles in Women’s Spirituality, Study Groups in Professional Education, Book Discussion Groups, and the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation.
  • Review some important contemporary Conversation Studies such as those by David Bohm and Sherry Turkle.
  • Describe several techniques useful in conducting successful conversations, such as the Talking Stick, World Cafe, and Open Space.
  • Identify the 10 most notable recent books on Conversation.
  • Identify 6 crucial dimensions of Conversation: Everyday Spirituality, Educational Strategy (in schools and higher education), Organizational Development, High but Low-Cost BYOB Leisure, Creativity, and Civic Discourse.
  • Present the new program Conversations New York, and preview a mini-conference on Conversation at Columbia in June, which our Seminars will sponsor.

Background Reading: Please visit the websites www.ConversationsNewYork.com, www.SocratesWay.com, and www.NCDD.org, and read Sherry Turkle’s article “The Flight from Conversation” from the New York Times Sunday Review, 4/21/12.

Faculty House is located on Columbia University’s East Campus on Morningside Drive, north of 116th Street. Enter Wien Courtyard through the gates on 116 Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive. Walk toward the north end of the courtyard, then turn right toward Morningside Drive. Faculty House will be the last building on the right.

To augment the fellowship among members, you are warmly invited to join other members for dinner at Faculty House at 5:30 PM. Dinner at Faculty House, a varied and ample buffet (including wine), is $25, which must be paid for by check made at the beginning of the meal. If you intend to join us for dinner you must let us know via email a week in advance.

BACKGROUND: This seminar is jointly sponsored by the Columbia University Seminars on Innovation in Education, and on Ethics, Moral Education, and Society.
The Seminar on Innovation in Education is co-chaired by Ronald Gross, who also conducts the Socratic Conversations at the Gottesman Libraries, and Robert McClintock who is John L. and Sue Ann Weinberg Professor Emeritus in the Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education at Teachers College. Founded in 1970, the Seminar explores the process of learning in individuals, organizations, and society throughout the lifespan and via major institutions.
The Seminar on Ethics, Moral Education and Society, chaired by Michael Schulman, brings together scholars from psychology, philosophy, sociology, political theory, education, religion and other disciplines to explore issues in ethics, moral education, moral development, moral motivation, moral decision making and related topics.

Upcoming 2013-14 seminar dates: no February, March 3, April 7, May 5.

Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. University Seminar participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212-854-2388 or disability@columbia.edu. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance. On campus, seminar participants with disabilities should alert a Public Safety Officer that they need assistance accessing campus.

Find out more at www.ColumbiaSeminar.org or by emailing grossassoc@aol.com

WEBSITES:
www.SocratesWay.com
www.ConversationsNewYork.com
www.OlderBetterWiser.com
www.RonaldGross.com