Spring 2018

The spring 2018 Global Cafe program theme is “Dialogue in Democracy,” providing students opportunities to participate in structured dialogue forums.  This program is a continuation of events relating to civic responsibility, discourse, and action, where students can engage in dialogue relating to social and environmental topics and concerns. The Global Cafe upholds civil discourse as foundational to liberal arts education and training, and is committed to elevating these practices in all our teaching and learning activities. Dialogue facilitation methods used in these forums are adapted from:

Essential Partners  reflective structured dialogue used to deepen reflection, listening, and understanding.

Civic Reflection dialogue aimed at using a text to talk about polarizing issues in the classroom.

National Issues Forum deliberations about difficult public issues aimed toward taking some sort of action.

Everyday Democracy dialogue aimed at fostering civic engagement in a community.

Spring 2018 “Dialogue in Democracy” structured dialogue events:

Tuesday, February 6, 12:30-1:50 “Coming to America” Student Center Glass Room. A National Issues Forum dialogue that will engage students, faculty and staff in deliberation about immigration. Using a structured dialogue and discernment process, participants will examine and discuss three scenarios addressing immigration in the United States. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, March 27, 12:30-1:45 ““From Chocolate to Elections:  How data can mislead you” with Dr. Heidi Dierssen. Student Center Glass Room. With the polls predicting Hillary Clinton had an 85% chance of winning, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election was surprising to most people. How did the polls get it so wrong? Should we expect a repeat of erroneous polls this November? Where else might data be misleading us? In this dialogue, we will discuss examples of how political and scientific data can be misleading and challenging to interpret, and of instances when only positive results got published. We will examine experimental design and analysis in the hopes of finding strategies become more informed citizens.

UConn Metanoia on the Environment and the Global Cafe present
“COLLAPSE OF THE OCEANS”
A FILM SCREENING
Tuesday, April 17th | 12:15 PM | Auditorium 
Followed by FREE Lunch & Discussion in the Student Center
Food from sustainable sources and funded by
UCONN Metanoia on the Environment
Open to the public
At the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Joshua Jackson investigates the devastating impacts of ocean warming on coral reefs and looks at the predicted impact on ocean ecosystems, and on our own food supply, of ocean acidification. He travels to the Philippines, whose citizens rely heavily on healthy reefs for food and other ocean products and for protection from storms. He finds that fishermen are no longer able to sustain their families because of the increasing scarcity of fish.RUNNING TIME: 50 minutes. 

 

Faculty Learning Community (FLC) meetings will take place:

  • Tuesday, January 23, 1:30-2:30, ACD 311
  • Tuesday, February 20, 1:30-2:30, ACD 311
  • Tuesday, May 1, 1:30-2:30, ACD 311

For more information, please contact nancy.parent@uconn.edu, christine.green@uconn.edu, or laurie.wolfley@uconn.edu