These words appear on the very currency we use to regulate our exchange. A healthy society also must traffic in the exchange of perspectives. A pre-condition of fruitful dialogue is cultivating both the necessary intellectual empathy and the informed understanding required to truly hear and see others.
In an effort to cultivate the formation of such capacities, we have created a repository of free, open-source content intended to inspire and cultivate civil conversations.
Connect with Your Community
All CCC students and community members are invited to participate in our programs. We all share these common experiences. Many courses at CCC have adopted the resources as required or suggested reading. See the complete list of resources below.
Curios Living Magazine
Curios Living Magazine showcases the art and artists of northern Arizona. This year's magazine shares the theme of American Tensions.
About Common Read
CCC Common Read invites students, employees, and community members to engage with a common theme and participate in intellectual experiences related to that theme, as outlined by our current suggested text(s). We encourage faculty to use the full text or excerpts in their courses as required or recommended material.
Through facilitating course adoptions and programming outside the classroom, CCC Common Read seeks to create meaningful learning opportunities which deepen students’ engagement and sense of belonging at our institution and in our communities.
Program Outcomes
Through participation in Common Read programming, students will:
engage in dynamic discussions with other students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the wider community while expanding our culture of inclusion and respect;
explore vital questions and problems in an academic setting;
communicate ideas orally in a clear and effective manner;
demonstrate listening and comprehension skills; and
make connections between learning experiences inside and outside the classroom and across disciplines.
These guidelines from the University of Michigan can help instructors facilitate discussion around controversial issues. The article includes tips on managing both spontaneous and planned discussions, including identifying a purpose, establishing guidelines, providing a common basis for understanding, creating a framework for discussion that maintains focus and flow, including everyone, being an active facilitator, summarizing the discussion and gathering student feedback, and handling issues that involve the instructor's identity.
This resource explores the meaning of dialogue and shares thoughts on approaching "touchy topics more productively and use conflict as a learning opportunity." This resource includes a podcast episode on the same topic.
This web page simply and directly walks you through the steps of having a difficult conversation using a formula similar to that found in "Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When stakes Are High." It is a quick read and will get you using the method right away.
Books
University of Alaska Anchorage offers the following handbooks to help faculty, faculty developers and university leaders more effectively engage campus communities in conversations about the most important issues of our times.
Understanding why people arrive at the conclusions they tend to arrive at is essential to productive dialogue on moral and political issues. In this Ted talk, Jonathan Haidt maps out a five-dimensional rubric for explaining how liberals and conservatives approach moral issues differently.
We're living in a time of intense ideological division, and it often feels impossible to bridge the gap. But can we afford not to? This hour, TED speakers explore how to communicate across the divide. These segments can be used together or separately.
This lesson plan from Facing History and Ourselves focuses on events in Ferguson, MO, but can be adapted for current events. The lesson's objectives are: Students will be able to establish a safe space for holding difficult conversations; Students will be able to acknowledge one another’s complicated feelings about race; Students will be able to develop a shared understanding of the basic facts surrounding the events in Ferguson.
This webpage from Common Sense Media offers videos, articles, and activities to help students find credible information online. These resources could easily be used in a class activity.
Our theme for 2018-2020 was Belonging. Our selection was Sebastian Junger’s book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. Details about previous programming can be found below.
I am writing to encourage you to participate in an exciting program developed by Coconino Community College faculty and staff. “CCC Common Read” is an opportunity for the entire college and the communities we serve to come together for a shared experience that explores various aspects of what it means to be human. Our goal at CCC is to encourage a sense of belonging and homecoming for everyone who walks through our doors. In order to make this goal successful, we need to hear from people throughout our college community.
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger has been selected for the common read program for a variety of fascinating and thought-provoking reasons. We believe this amazing book will inspire self-reflection and dialogue concerning what it means to feel connected as part of a community and the very human response that can take place when that social bond is lost. Every individual will have something unique to learn from and to share with others. We hope that participation in this special project will help all of us understand the challenges that others face and motivate us to connect with and serve others in need.
I invite you to view our events schedule for more details about programming. Please join us in this adventure as we connect with others and discover more about ourselves in the process. I look forward to learning along with you as we seek to understand and provide a sense of belonging through this common reading experience. Thank you for choosing Coconino Community College and for your participation in this new adventure!
Onward! Colleen A. Smith, PhD Coconino Community College President
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging examines the way war creates intimate bonds between people. Through times of adversity, humans are given a sense of purpose and connection. These experiences create collectives that depend on one another, ultimately connecting with our inherent nature as a communal species. To this point, Junger explores the relationship between combat veterans returning home and higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorders as they search for the closeness and unity in everyday society. Tribe explores themes of loyalty, belonging, and the human quest for finding meaning in life. This book introduces elements of tribal societies for the purpose of helping us consider ways of creating communities that thrive not from catastrophe or war, but from peace and the act of coming together in purpose. Sebastian Junger uses anecdotal historical notes, as well as psychological and anthropological lenses to explore the tribal connection that is largely lost in today’s society. The lack of clear purpose and community begs the question: how can we come together in today’s divided world?
Books selected for the Common Read program should:
Generate dynamic discussions ideas among students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the wider community
Support educational initiatives and learning outcomes
Bridge learning experience inside and outside the classroom
Be widely accessible (in print and audio versions), inexpensive, and readable by most students
Address issues that are relevant to students’ lives
Be useful across disciplines
Embody the ideals and academic standards of the college while expanding our culture of inclusion and respect
E Pluribus Unum: “Out of many, one.”
