Wednesday, April 12, 2023, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Eastern

 

Nicholas Longo’s Practicing Democracy: A Toolkit for Educating Civic Professionals (published by AAC&U and Campus Compact as a free guidebook) offers practical approaches and strategies for developing students’ capacity to engage in collaborative, public problem solving. It provides tools for the students to learn to facilitate inclusive and participatory processes that make a difference. The lessons in the online, user-friendly guide are designed to educate publicly engaged leaders, or civic professionals.

This webinar, led by the author, will provide an introduction to the themes in the book and practical advice on using the civic prompts or conversation starters for deliberative dialogues and critical reflection on college campuses.

In these times of crisis, colleges and universities need to commit to playing a role in revitalizing democracy by practicing democracy. With civic prompts such as readings, storytelling, dialogue and deliberation, case studies, situational analysis, team-building activities, and other facilitation materials for student engagement in a variety of settings, Practicing Democracy provides ideas and resources for educators interested in creating space for democracy.

About the Author

Nicholas V. Longo is a chair and professor of Global Studies and a faculty fellow for engaged scholarship at the Center for Teaching Excellence at Providence College, where he was the 2022 recipient of the Innovation in Teaching Excellence Award. Nick also co-directs the Dialogue, Inclusion, and Democracy (DID) Lab which focuses on using deliberative, community-based pedagogies to promote equity and democracy.
 
Nick is a faculty mentor and board member of College Unbound, a college working to re-invent higher education for returning adult learners. He is also a deliberative dialogue fellow for Campus Compact, and recently served as a faculty consultant for AAC&U’s Civic Prompts in the Major Initiative and as a national field leader with the Bonner Foundation’s Community-Engaged Learning Initiative. He formerly served as a program officer at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation in the area of civic education, the inaugural director of the Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute at Miami University in Ohio, and the director of Campus Compact’s national youth civic engagement initiative, Raise Your Voice. 
 
Nick is author of a number of books, articles, and reports on issues of deliberative pedagogy, civic professionalism, youth civic education, engaged scholarship, and service-learning. His publications include Why Community Matters: Connecting Education with Civic Life (SUNY Press) and several co-edited volumes, including Creating Space for Democracy: A Primer on Dialogue and Deliberation in Higher Education (Stylus) and Deliberative Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning for Democratic Engagement (Michigan State University Press). He was awarded the Early Career Research Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSCLE) in 2009 and holds a Master’s in Public Affairs and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Minnesota. 
 
Nick lives in Providence, Rhode Island with his wife, Aleida. Together, they have a great passion for educating the next generation of democratic citizens, starting with their children, Maya and Noah.