Experiences in civic engagement and the role of the humanities in a democratic society

Abstract

The goal of the civic engagement program I helped to build for the Illinois state humanities council was "hosting monthly community dialogues in different areas of the state in order to promote a more democratic culture." The first half of this paper presents the conception motivating the program's development, including that public dialogue can in fact contribute to that kind of positive change, how we think that change happens, and how the program worked to bring it about. The second half of the paper identifies a unique challenge I encountered in developing a public dialogue program, and offers a hypothesis about its significance.