Program Dates: 2019-2020
Status: Closed
We will award five (5) new fellowships to participate in UConn's Democracy & Dialogues Fellowship Program.
This Year’s Focus
This year's program will focus on creating dialogue in the classroom. In keeping with the recommendations made by the President's Committee on Civil Discourse and Dialogue, submitted in July 2018, we will support teams working to develop the skills of learning and decision-making across difference about difficult topics and subjects.
The Program
As part of a University-wide partnership between academic, service, outreach, and administrative units, fellowship teams will engage in a year-long, shared-learning process to develop projects that apply dialogue and deliberation to specific content area and curricular settings, and make use of, and potentially contribute to, current research-in-practice. As part of the fellowship, teams will:
- Participate in a launch meeting early in the fall semester
- Attend regular meetings (3 per semester) and a 1-day winter break retreat. Please note that:
- At least one team member must be present at each meeting and all members are required to attend the Winter Break Retreat. Please bear this in mind when applying.
- Meeting dates will be determined once fellows have been chosen.
- Meetings will take various forms in order to meet fellows' needs and interests. Possible examples include workshops on developing individual projects, hosting outside experts, training sessions (e.g. facilitation/moderation, digital humanities, or other tech skills), information gathering related to projected project outcomes, presentation/testing of program, etc. These meetings will be open to the entire University community.
- Present at our concluding meeting/conference at the end of the spring semester.
Who is Eligible & Involved
Projects can be led by a single individual or be team-based. Projects must be led by a UConn affiliate, such as faculty (permanent or part time), staff or students; teams can also include non-UConn affiliates.
Outcomes & Outputs
The primary goal of the 2019-20 Fellowship Program is to develop applied dialogue and deliberation skills to UConn courses and curriculum. Secondary goals include the creation of a community of practice at UConn committed to the advancement of practical and theoretical knowledge of these approaches, and enhancing UConn's capacity to serve as a resource for those both on and off campus seeking to address problems through democratic encounters.
The following is a list of sample deliverables that offer possible means by which those goals might be realized by fellows/fellowship teams:
- Syllabus for a class taught through dialogic method/approach, or that contains a significant dialogic element (these can be newly created courses or alterations to existing ones)
- How-to guide, set of resources, network or infrastructure creation, etc. that will help others introduce dialogic practice into the classroom
- Assessment of learning outcomes of the dialogic classroom, or replicable tool/model for doing such assessment or evaluation
Resources Provided
Teams will be provided with:
- Up to $5,000
- Funds can be used for a variety of purposes: travel, honoraria, catering, materials, consulting fees, and the like. A budget will be requested from all fellows and will be subject to ICD Steering Committee approval.
- It is hoped that participants will seek to leverage that initial support to secure additional funds, if needed.
- Fellows can also self-fund, or make arrangements with a sponsoring unit in the University.
- Materials support:
- Fellows will have access to office materials and basic equipment (copier, printer, hi-tech seminar room) at the Dodd Center. Access is provided by requests made to Dodd Center staff.
- Publicity assistance and promotion. (Please note, a minimum of 2 weeks is needed for any publicity request.)
How to Apply
Applications are due September 6, 2019 and should be submitted in either PDF or Word format to dialogues@uconn.edu with "D&D Fellowship Application" in the subject line of the email.
The application consists of 2 parts:
- A proposal narrative (1,000 words maximum) that includes the following:
- Goals of the project
- How these goals address those of Democracy & Dialogues
- How the goals will be pursued
- Expected outputs or deliverables
- Applicant(s)' experience in engaged research initiatives
- Itemized budget
- Project timeline
- A CV or resume for each participating member
Decisions will be announced September 13, 2019.
Sponsoring Partners
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Human Rights Institute
Humanities Institute
Office of the Provost
Student Affairs/The Parents Fund