Discourse In Public Spaces
DIPS
Discourse in public spaces (political, academic, social, virtual, etc.) is too often unreasonable, uncivil, and lacking in reflection. Since reasonable, civil and reflective dialogue is the life breath of human flourishing, the goal of the present enterprise is to forge connections with people from all around the globe in order to create a dialogical space that will offer us the opportunity to share our works, our concerns, and our enthusiasm.
READY TO DIP IN?!?
INCLUSIVITY
Because many believe that genuinely engaged dialogue needs support in numerous venues, the heading of DIPS, or Discourse in Public Spaces, hopefully, signals maximum inclusivity. Besides educators, the hope is that this enterprise will attract philosophers, scientists, artists, policymakers, activists, and many others whose concern is enhancing dialogue in varying contexts. The objective is to create a coalition of people and organizations committed to increasing civil dialogue in all its forms. Those who worry about incivility in the public square, who worry about internal threats to democratic dialogue, who worry about the seeming inability of experts to communicate to civilians, who worry about the lack of education in support of dialogue throughout academia—all are welcome to join in helping to make this world a better place.
GOALS
Our primary goal is to solicit proposals to host biennial conferences, the first of which we hope will take place in August 2026.
Call for Papers
for the 2026 International DIPS Conference
at the The University of Hamburg (Germany)
August 20-23rd, 2026
Potential topics: climate conversations; the disconnect between scientists and citizens; dialogue with those deprived of liberty; communicating about war and violence; dealing with the negative impacts of social media: how to create a healthy civic space; re-energizing dialogical citizenship; creating positivity between races and genders; reinventing humility as a desired trait; assisting youngsters to become efficient parents of their future dialogical selves; and more. We’ll be sure to follow up with more details.
Aside from the above, another goal is to foster intergenerational dialogue by emphasizing the promotion of the work of young scholars who are dialogical enthusiasts eager to communicate across typical disciplinary lines.
And yet another goal is to create a home for supporters to promote the dialogical opportunities they are hosting. We will also create a listserv of emails for those who would like to receive communication from others on the listserv. If you would like your name to be on that list, please send a note to us.
Managing directors:
Arie Kizel, Thomas Wartenberg, and Susan T. Gardner.
Please contact us using the form below, and we will get back to you.
Our Global Supporters
Portuguese Philo-Creativity
