The continuation project builds on the broad success of our original project while deepening our focus on a subset of difficult dialogues related to Alaska Native issues and constituencies. The two-year project consists of two major activities:

Building Community and Sharing Best Practices. Two Faculty Associates have been appointed to broaden campus-wide involvement in general Difficult Dialogues issues and techniques through workshops and study groups based on Start Talking, the faculty handbook created by participants in our original project. The 2008-09 Faculty Associates are

• Dr. Tracey Stewart, Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategy, Alaska Pacific University
• Dr. John Mouracade, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Alaska Anchorage

Difficult Dialogues Related to Alaska Native Issues.  Sixteen Faculty Fellows have been selected to take part in a new faculty development intensive in May 2009 that focuses on Alaska Native issues, ways of teaching and learning, and difficult dialogues related to Alaska Native cultures and higher education. These 16 were drawn from the more than 60 faculty participants in previous Difficult Dialogues intensives on the basis of their demonstrated leadership, motivation, and commitment. They will form a kind of “second tier” of more advanced practitioners to move the initiative forward in an area of great importance to our campuses and communities.  

Full Proposal
Press Release
Participants

Difficult Dialogues is a national initiative launched by the Ford Foundation in 2005 to promote pluralism and academic freedom on college campuses. The phrase has also become a common shorthand on our campuses that we use to refer to the many controversial and contentious issues that we have sought to engage over the past few years.  

Original Project.  UAA and APU formed a partnership to apply for one of the original two-year grants from the Ford Foundation. Our project (called “Engaging Controversy”) was one of 26 throughout the nation to be funded by the initiative. Our three-part strategy included 1) developing Faculty Fellowship and Faculty Intensive models and using them to train an interdisciplinary cohort in techniques for productively engaging controversial topics and creating inclusive classrooms; 2) experimenting with these techniques in our classrooms and through community events; and 3) reflecting on our models, experiences, and best practices in a handbook for local and national distribution.

Project Goals.  The original project was designed to address the increasing polarization of our society and the need for faculty to deal more effectively with breakdowns in civil discourse. At one extreme are voices that are too forceful and may overrun the complexities of other peoples, cultures, and traditions. At the other extreme are voices that are not forceful enough, whether by personal or cultural inclination or because they've been intimidated into silence. These projects hope to bridge that gap, fostering a greater understanding of the religious and cultural complexity of our community, a greater willingness to engage in open discussion without attacking one another, and more meetings in the gray areas between absolute positions. The overall goal was--and still is--to improve the learning climates on both campuses, making them more inclusive of minority voices and ways of knowing and safer places for the free exchange of ideas.

The Faculty Intensive, first offered in 2006, was so well received that both campuses funded additional intensives in 2007 and 2008, effectively doubling faculty involvement in the Difficult Dialogues initiative. Over 60 faculty members have now gone through the intensive, and the experiences and reflections of over 30 of them are featured in Start Talking. Additional reflective essays are featured on this website on the Faculty Experiences page.

The UAA/APU Books of the Year program was launched as part of our original project and has been sustained in the years since by the enthusiasm of faculty and staff members who have served on selection committees, produced readers’ guides, and even written a companion volume and created a website of supplementary readings. Books are chosen to support a common theme for the year and to give us a shared platform for raising controversial issues that our students and campuses can explore together. 

Start Talking, our handbook for engaging difficult dialogues in higher education, tells the story of our partnership and the lessons we have learned along the way. It presents a model for a faculty development intensive, strategies for engaging controversial topics in the classroom, and reflections from thirty-five faculty and staff members who have field-tested the techniques. It is intended as a conversation-starter and field manual for professors and teachers who want to strengthen their teaching and engage their students more effectively in conversations about the most important issues of our time.

Original Proposal

Books of the Year

Start Talking