In an article on the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) website, assistant Professor of Political Science Se-Hyoung Yi and John J. Theis, a political science professor at Lone Star College-Kingwood describe work they are doing to introduce students to the practice of moderating and participating in deliberative forums. Students will participate in a forum using the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) issue guide titled Coming to America: Who Should We Welcome, What Should We Do?

The following is excerpted from the article:

Yi said the deliberative dialogue movement began at UHCL last semester in collaboration with his colleague, John J. Theis, a political science professor at Lone Star College-Kingwood. “We trained 28 UHCL students to become moderators in a deliberative dialogue event in March and about eight students are now prepared to be student facilitators at the upcoming April event,” Yi said. “We will have eight to 10 small groups to deliberate the issues...

...Six-year U.S. Coast Guard veteran and sophomore criminology major Lesley Tribble said that even in the military, she didn’t know so much could be achieved by using deliberative dialogue. “When it’s done right, it’s astonishing,” she said. “Deliberative dialogue is one of the only ways to completely decimate the divisiveness that is perpetuated in our culture and in social media. This is the way to disassociate from your own personal bias and see the other perspectives.”

For more information about this work, contact Se-Hyoung Yi .