What Can Town Meeting Teach Us About Bridging Divides?

Past event
Feb 24, 2021, 7 PM

Talking In Place: What Can Vermont Town Meetings Teach Us About Bridging Divides?
February 24
7:00 pm
Vermont Humanities Zoom - Free Event
https://www.vermonthumanities.org/event/civics-talking-in-place/

Event description:
Before this discussion, we invite you to listen to "Town Meeting," a new half-hour show in the award-winning Rumblestrip podcast series. https://rumblestripvermont.com/2021/02/town-meeting/ You'll enjoy sound from the floor of town meetings and some surprising stories from participants who normally don't share their opinions: Vermont's town moderators.

Then join us as our panel reflects on the podcast and what Vermont's rural town meeting tradition can teach us about our nation's democracy today. What is the role of community, culture, and place when we take part in democracy? How have Vermonters dealt with division over history? As demographics change, can lessons from town meeting help us strengthen democratic engagement?

Panelists:

Cheryl Morse, professor of social geography at UVM, Vermont Roots Migration Project
Paul M. Searls, professor of history at Northern Vermont University-Lyndon and author of Two Vermonts and Repeopling Vermont
Susan Clark, coauthor of Slow Democracy and All Those In Favor and a Vermont town moderator
Erica Heilman, producer of the podcast Rumblestrip, "Extraordinary conversations with ordinary people. Or that is the goal."

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