Public Dialogues
Students from the Semester in Dialogue turn their education into action by organizing public dialogues around controversial subjects. Students conceive, raise funds, market, design, and conduct engaging dialogues, either intimate or grand, on issues that relate to their semester's topic, in collaboration with community partners. This opportunity allows students to engage in public issues, create an impact in their community while learning to work together in a group environment. Venues have included the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue, SFU Harbour Centre, the Roundhouse Community Centre and the Vancouver Public Library. Their perspective and youthful energy has resulted in vibrant dialogues including:
- Let's Talk About Change, BC!: A presentation of timeline projects on Leading Social Change in BC.
- Building Community, Building Health: A conversation to reimagine health care from a community perspective.
- FEDAP with Food Systems: A presentation and dialogue about sustainable food systems within the food energy descent action plan.
- Under One Roof, Open house and dialogue: An exhibition and dialogue on greenest city student projects. How does the greenest city hit the ground?
- Faith in the System?: Dignity. Mercy. Love. Compassion. How do these values impact our local economies? How do they equip us to respond to rising prices, unemployment and a widening income gap?
- Tales from Terminal City, 125 years of Vancouver: Gardening and public art workshops, a walking tour and a main dialogue, all celebrating Vancouver's 125 years of storytelling.
- ConservACTION: A North Burnaby community dinner and roundtable on how we can improve our lives by taking an active, participatory approach to energy conservation.
- What Matters Most, An Evening Putting Passion to Action: Students share stories from their experiments in lifestyle activism and explore the question "What matters most?"
- The Drive to Resilience, Envisioning the Future of Commercial Drive: A creative and open dialogue on what resilience means for the Commercial Drive neighbourhood, with a focus on community involvement.
- SFU & Woodward's Thought-luck: An exploration of creative programming possibilities for the Woodward's space with SFU students and faculty, residents, local artists and organizers.
- A Fork in the Road, Envisioning Vancouver's Food Future: A presentation of the student's research followed by a public dialogue on the topic of food security, justice and sustainability.
- Audacious Visions for Vancouver: A World Cafe style dialogue discussing the future of Vancouver with participants sharing their thoughts of creativity and audacious thinking.
- Share the Health: A showcase of urban health innovations to engage a diverse community in collaborative conversation.
- Housing 2050, A Sustainable Vision: Diverse members of the community share both their personal and professional experiences on how communities will look like in 2050.
- Imagi-NATION, Exploring Citizenship in our Community: A one-day dialogue bringing many cultures and perspectives together to explore citizenship in the Vancouver community.
- Taking a Bite out of Climate Change: Participants of the Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2) came together exploring the linked topics of food and climate change.
- Greening our Appetites: A half-day dialogue examining the relationship between food sustainability and energy/transportation issues.
- A 2010-Piece Puzzle: A one-day dialogue exploring the complexities of issues related to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
- Green is the New Black: A one-day dialogue looking at the shared responsibility for creating a sustainable future in BC.
- Art Takes Route: A UniverCity/Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue Public Art Competition.
- Spirituality and the Environment: A dialogue creating safe space for multi-faith communities to reflect on diverse spiritual traditions and approaches to healing the earth.