When Civil Discourse Becomes Infrastructure: Inside JMU’s $5 Million Initiative

James Madison University has received a $2.72 million U.S. Department of Education grant to expand its Better Conversations Together program nationally, bringing JMU’s total recent federal investment in civil discourse work to nearly $5 million and positioning it as a national leader in civic engagement. Selected as one of only 16 universities nationwide to receive this highly competitive funding, JMU will use the grant to reach 40 anchor institutions across at least 40 states, train faculty through a deliberative pedagogy fellows program, and serve an estimated 30,000 students. Managed by the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement, the initiative focuses on building students’ capacities for democratic participation through skills such as deep listening, intellectual humility, and constructive deliberation across differences, while supporting faculty with training, revised deliberative materials, and rigorous evaluation. Grounded in James Madison’s vision of deliberation as central to democratic self-governance, the program offers a scalable model for strengthening civic infrastructure and democratic practice across higher education.

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James Madison University has been awarded a $2.72 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to expand its Better Conversations Together program to institutions of higher education across the country. JMU was selected as one of only 16 universities nationwide, and the only Virginia institution, to receive civil discourse funding from a highly competitive applicant pool. Combined with a $2.1 million grant received in September 2025, this nearly $5 million investment positions JMU as a national leader in civic engagement and deliberative discourse programming. The Better Conversations Together initiative, managed by the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement, teaches students essential skills for democratic participation including deep listening, intellectual humility, and constructive deliberation across political and social differences.

The grant supports an ambitious national dissemination effort that will reach 40 anchor universities across at least 40 states, develop a faculty fellows program focused on deliberative pedagogy, and serve approximately 30,000 students over the grant period. Program activities include embedding deliberation in individual classrooms and across entire campuses, revising National Issues Forums Institute issue guides for college audiences, hosting biannual seminars and workshops on deliberative teaching methods, and establishing rigorous evaluation processes to measure civic discourse competencies from kindergarten through college. Faculty will receive training and support to facilitate deliberative conversations with confidence, while students will develop abilities to engage thoughtfully across political differences and collaborate on addressing public problems.
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This initiative represents a significant investment in civic infrastructure within higher education, creating pathways for sustained democratic practice throughout students' academic careers. By grounding the work in James Madison's founding vision of deliberation as essential to democratic self-governance, JMU connects historical principles to contemporary challenges facing diverse campus communities. For practitioners working to strengthen deliberative capacity in educational settings or build cross-institutional networks around civic learning, this program offers a model for scaling evidence-based approaches to dialogue and democratic participation. Learn more about the Better Conversations Together program and JMU's civic discourse leadership at https://www.jmu.edu.