Easter 2024: Overview of the Dialogue Across Difference Program

During the Easter 2024 semester, our work continued to expand with the growth of Dinner & Dialogue, a community-engaged learning course in the Rhetoric program, the onboarding of a Canale Intern, and an invitation to the SNF Ithaca Initiative National Student Dialogue at the University of Delaware.

Now in its second year, the Dinner & Dialogue project sets out to spark connection and build community through conversations about that which we hold dear at Sewanee. In February, 70 participants and student facilitators gathered to reflect on intersecting meanings of Sewanee’s aspirational ideal, EQB. As attendees discussed how EQB continues to resonate, they emphasized the importance of community (e.g., “Dwelling together in unity... The little moments when the community feels natural and like home”). Furthermore, attendees emphasized the importance of that community holding each other responsible for their actions (e.g., “Continue to hold each other accountable”). Attendees also noted the importance of the small, relational interactions that make Sewanee distinct (e.g., “Friendly small gestures that acknowledge your presence and hardship”). February’s event boasted the highest participation since the reintroduction of the program in November 2022. 

To further buttress the work of the program on campus, Director of Dialogue Across Difference Programs Dr. Lydia Reinig taught  a community-engaged learning course, “Public Dialogue and Deliberation” in the Rhetoric program. This senior-level course enrolled nine students, who surveyed theories and practices of public dialogue and deliberation, culminating in the design and facilitation of a public forum on the intersections of free expression and inclusion on college campuses. This Dinner & Dialogue special event brought together 60 participants. 

When talking about their takeaways from the Dinner & Dialogue experience, participants underscore the opportunity this dialogue created to bring together the Sewanee community (e.g., “The opportunity for dialogue across various Sewanee constituencies is really important.”).

Mary Webster Burke, C’26 joined the Dialogue Across Difference program as a Canale intern in January 2024. When ask to reflect on the significance of dialogue in our cultural context, Burke said: "Dialogue matters because it brings the many voices and ideas of our community together to collaborate and work towards mutual understanding, something I believe our world needs more of. "

Burke, along with Jenna Miller, Canale intern for the OCE’s Democratic Engagement initiative, traveled to the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware for the SNF Ithaca Initiative's National Student Dialogue. Coming from across the country, more than 100 student leaders and their advisors gathered to consider how to activate communities around issues of free expression and inclusion on their respective campuses.

This past semester, Burke and Miller also collaborated to convene “Dessert & Democracy,” where 20 participants joined in a facilitated conversation about voter apathy.