Weber State Talks

Perhaps the most important challenge in our communities today is the fact that people do not know how to have a civil conversation. Too often our discourse devolves to shouting matches, unfriending people in social media, and ruined dinner conversations. To be better neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family, we need to learn to have conversations without hatred. To that end, Weber State Talks is an initiative helping give people on our campus and in our community the skills to have conversations.

If you are interested in incorporating dialogue in your work, the Walker Institute has the following opportunities:

Constructive Dialogue: the Walker Institute manages the Perspectives course for our campus, which teaches people how to have conversations that focus on shared understanding rather than winning.

Civic Gym: the Walker Institute manages the campus collaboration with Civic Gym, which provides two opportunities for students to have conversations with college students across the nation: Unify America and Deep Dive.

Walker Institute Talks: the Walker Institute hosts biweekly conversations about a common read to practice having discussions about controversial issues in a safe space.

Deliberative Dialogue: the Walker Institute will prepare and facilitate a deliberative dialogue on any topic for any class, group, or division so that people can put their conversation skills to work to address a difficult issue.

ACTA College Debates and Discourse Alliance: the Walker Institute will help students how to engage with empathy and civility by deploying Braver Angels on our campus.