The Vanderbilt Civil Discourse Lab (CDL) is the university’s hub for student civil discourse and constructive dialogue education. The Civil Discourse Lab utilizes proven methodologies that equip students to engage with different perspectives while incorporating curiosity, empathy, open-mindedness and academic humility.
Civil Discourse Lab workshops and tools strengthen students’ ability to navigate difference and disagreement to make decisions and move forward together, building essential civil discourse habits.
Civil Discourse habits are leadership habits. This is not about “talking better”, it is about how leaders move from difference to understanding— and from conversation to action.
Workshops were designed for participants to cultivate leadership habits and foster collaboration through dialogue, debate, and deliberation. Each workshop emphasizes practical training that can be completed inside and outside the classroom.
Facilitators partner with Dialogue Vanderbilt Student Facilitation Fellows, emphasizing student peer to peer learning.
Workshops are available for undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty.
Leadership habits shape outcomes. Constructive dialogue depends on repeated behaviors. Dialogue, debate, and deliberation are daily collective habits—strengthening judgment, trust, and shared decision-making.
Leaders who drive impact combine intellectual rigor with the human skills required to navigate complexity and difference.
Dialogue Vanderbilt Civil Discourse Lab Workshops help prepare students to:
Navigate complexity and disagreement.
Lead and build trust across differences.
Make thoughtful and tough decisions together.
Lead with integrity, humility, and purpose.