Aug 23, 2024
At the beginning of the fall semester, we invite you to join a conversation about conflicts on college and university campuses. This episode was recorded late in Spring 2024 and features some of our Conflict Transformation (CT) interns - Mandy Berghela, Teyonce Allison, Agnes Roches, and Caroline Harding - and Sarah Stroup, the CT director and college faculty.
The launching point of this discussion is a 2023 report from the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI), "Transforming Conflict on College Campuses." CDI uses the conflict transformation framework of Lederach and others to understand the many different types of conflict that can arise on campuses, and to suggest actions that can foster more constructive dynamics. As they describe their research, "[w]e embarked on this research project to better understand free speech issues on campuses, but what we heard from many participants was that the framing of free speech situates the problem in an abstract national debate that hinders, rather than facilitates, problem-solving. What participants emphasized instead was the increase in conflict that stemmed from competing community values and stakeholders who lack the skills and vocabulary or will to discuss and integrate these competing values."
You can listen in without reading the report first, but we strongly encourage you to check it out! The download is free at their website: https://constructivedialogue.org/articles/transforming-conflict-on-college-campuses