With ongoing conflicts across the globe and one of the most fraught U.S. presidential elections to date, the environment is ripe for debates spilling into our classrooms at Lehigh. Left unmanaged, these debates can turn contentious and detract from the academic experience.
Lehigh hosted a virtual training for all faculty and staff on how to navigate discourse around these sensitive subjects with students, parents, alumni and others.
Hosted by Michael Lee of the College of Charleston, this session will equip participants with tips on promoting constructive dialogue in the classroom. Michael ran through high-level principles and ground rules for successful persuasion and productive debate, as well as more specific tactics to structure conversations about difficult topics.
This recorded session is a 45-minute presentation and 15-minute Q&A, although participants were welcome to ask questions at any point during the training.
- On-demand recording of the training session
- Michael Lee's presentation
- Handout: Debate Activity
- Handout: Discussion Activity
About Michael Lee
Michael Lee is a professor of communication and director of the Civility Initiative at the College of Charleston. The Civility Initiative promotes healthy conflict and dialogue across differences through panels, debates, movie screenings, and workshop as well as a podcast about important conflicts in the lives of everyday folks called, When We Disagree. He teaches and writes in the areas of political communication and rhetoric, and his research focuses on political identity in American politics. His work has earned over a dozen awards including five national book awards for Creating Conservatism: Postwar Words that Made an American Movement. His latest book is We Are Not One People: Separatism and Secession in American Politics Since 1776.