Speaker
Emma Cabrera
Project Manager, UW–Madison Deliberation Dinners
Emma Cabrera serves as a program manager and instructor for The Discussion Project. She was a social studies teacher in Chicago Public Schools and the Madison Metropolitan School District. In addition, Ms. Cabrera taught English in South Korea and Japan, and was a staffer in the U.S. Senate. She is an alumna of UW–Madison who earned a BA in political science and philosophy in 2014 and a master’s in 2018 from the highly ranked Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She was a student-athlete, competing on the women’s swimming team during her undergraduate years. She also serves as the project manager of the Deliberation Dinners program at UW–Madison.
Speaking in
Deliberation Dinners: An Innovative Model for Dialogue Across Differences
In this session, participants will learn about the UW-Madison Deliberation Dinners program. Piloted in 2023-24 and scaled up for 2024-25, the Deliberation Dinners engage undergraduates in ideologically and demographically diverse groups in deliberations on controversial issues. The presentation will explain why the program was set up, how it is designed and implemented, and what we have learned that is of use to both campus and classroom instructors. In the panel portion of the breakout session, students and faculty/staff facilitators will describe their experiences and the personal benefits of the program.
Session Objectives
- Learn what deliberation is and its possible uses in your teaching
- Learn insights into how to foster civil discourse through intentionally scaffolded and structured discussion structures and facilitation
- Understand what students’ experiences are in deliberations