Join us for an initiative encouraging students to deliberate together across political, geographic, and cultural differences.

Hosted during the National Week of Conversation, this event is the only nation-wide, open access, deliberative forum series exclusively for college students and moderated by trained facilitators, not bots. At the end, students will have the option to take a short survey that will help us assess the utility of cross-campus deliberations in combating polarization and finding common ground on wicked issues. Last year, we had over 250 students across 25+ campuses participate.  This is a great extra credit opportunity or a chance to incorporate deliberation into your classes without needing to organize and moderate the forum yourself.

We are also looking for moderators. Even if you don’t have experience facilitating deliberative forums, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn in a low-stakes setting. Training and a full set of facilitation materials will be provided in advance.  Also, we welcome student facilitators! This is perfect if you’re teaching a course in facilitating difficult conversations or for students in leadership programs. We have a small amount of funding to pay student facilitators.

The Bridging Wicked Divides project is jointly organized and enjoys support from James Madison University’s Madison Center for Civic Engagement, AASCU’s American Democracy Project, JMU’s Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue (ICAD), the Every Voice Engaged Foundation, and the National Week of Conversation and #ListenFirst Project.

Schedule at a Glance