A Showcase of Mutual Understanding

Deliberative Dialogue is a type of moderated conversation that enables individuals to participate in civil discussion about contentious issues. Discussion involves three kinds of participants: a moderator, note-taker, and participant.

The moderator provides prompts to which the participants respond to and discuss while the note-taker documents the key points of the discussion. As a member of the Deliberative Dialogue team, I had the opportunity to serve in each of these roles.

By Brooke Morris

As someone who loves to participate in thoughtprovoking interactions, I was thrilled to partake in this event. However, this experience taught me the value of listening is equivalent, if not greater than, speaking. Being a part of an intentional discussion means putting aside reservations you may have about a topic and approaching the issue with an open mind.

In a world where conversation about social issues is combative and hostile, seeing participants willingly put aside their biases at an open forum was refreshing.