Dynamic Discussions Featured Projects

Dynamic Discussions Featured Projects

Higher education has an important role in helping students and society at-large be critical thinkers who can approach dialogue and discourse from a position of scholarship and fact rather than bias and bigotry. This page highlights the important work of UC Davis faculty, staff, and students addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of bias and bigotry.
Courses Events
Dynamic Discussions is funded through the Office of the President to address and combat antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of bias, bigotry, and discrimination.

The initiative emerged from a University of California Office of the President funding initiative supporting projects across multiple UC campuses focused on addressing bias, bigotry, and the challenges of engaging across difference. While the original funding period has concluded, UC Davis continues to expand this work through evolving programming, resources, courses, workshops, facilitated dialogue opportunities, and engagement tools.

This hub will continue to grow as a space for sharing ideas, stories, and opportunities that encourage meaningful connection, reflection, and dialogue across the UC Davis community and beyond.

The projects and perspectives featured throughout this hub reflect the work of individual contributors, campus partners, and sponsoring units and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of California, UC Davis, or the Chancellor.

Dynamic Discussions News

Fostering Respect During Election Season

  • by Sarah Colwell

Whether an election is about voting for a person or a proposition, the season can feel intense. Opinions sharpen, timelines accelerate and conversations spill from social feeds into classrooms, clinics, labs and offices. 

That’s why UC Davis Inclusive Excellence maintains the Elections Resource page: a centralized hub designed to support informed participation, connect you with nonpartisan information, and promote respect and understanding across our community.

A photo of a candle burning.

Resources for Shemini Atzeret

  • by UC Davis Staff

 

From the Multicultural Calendar

For a list of the upcoming religious and cultural observances, please visit our Multicultural Calendar, which serves as a valuable resource to foster understanding, accommodation, and respect for religious and cultural observances. It helps students, staff, and faculty plan events, activities, meetings, retreats, and courses throughout the year.

A woman in a yellow jacket in front of a screen with blue and yellow watercolors.

Our Principles

  • by Renetta G. Tull, Ph.D.

This year, we are celebrating 35 years of the Principles of Community. As I regularly read the Principles, I am always positively impacted by the strength of the words used by those who wrote them years ago. 

A photo of a candle burning.

Resources for Yom Kippur

  • by The Multicultural Calendar

 

From the Multicultural Calendar

For a list of the upcoming religious and cultural observances, please visit our Multicultural Calendar, which serves as a valuable resource to foster understanding, accommodation, and respect for religious and cultural observances. It helps students, staff, and faculty plan events, activities, meetings, retreats, and courses throughout the year.

Candlelight

Resources for Sukkot

  • by UC Davis Staff

In support of our patients, faculty, employees, students, and community members we would like to share the following resources for awareness, care, and guidance around accommodations to consider when hosting gatherings and/or meetings where food is provided during upcoming observances. We will be elevating the observances of various faith groups throughout the 2025-26 academic year, as part of a broader effort to elevate understanding and recognition of religious, faith-based, and spiritual identity.

Former Police Station in Sderot, Gaza

UC Davis Study Examines Rising Mental Health Challenges Among California Jews

  • by UC Davis Staff

A new UC Davis study has found that California Jews are experiencing significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety following the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. While the violence itself contributed to distress, researchers emphasize that concerns about antisemitism in the U.S.—ranging from harassment to synagogue vandalism—were a major factor driving psychological strain.

YOLO Singing Club Woodland 1894 to 1905

Preserving Local Voices: UC Davis Students Illuminate a Hidden Black Community

  • by UC Davis Staff

UC Davis students are uncovering hidden stories from Yolo County’s past, highlighting a little-known Black community in Woodland that thrived in the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. Through research led by Associate Professor Cecilia Tsu and a team of undergraduate and graduate students, the project documented the lives of formerly enslaved individuals and their descendants, preserving photographs, maps, court records, and personal histories.

A photo of a candle burning.

Resources for Rosh Hashanah

  • by UC Davis Staff
In support of our patients, faculty, employees, students, and community members we would like to share the following resources for awareness, care, and guidance around accommodations to consider when hosting gatherings and/or meetings where food is provided during upcoming observances.
Warm Candle and bokeh lights

Paitishahem Gahanbar

  • by UC Davis Staff
In support of our patients, faculty, employees, students, and community members we would like to share the following resources for awareness, care, and guidance around accommodations to consider when hosting gatherings and/or meetings where food is provided during upcoming observances.
Asian man with glasses and a grey sports coat, folds arms and looks over his shoulder at the camera.

Building Bridges Through Compassion

Dr. Hendry Ton shares expert insights on fostering connection and psychological safety during polarizing times.

Discover ways to build psychological safety Learn to foster compassion post-election

An invitation from Renetta G. Tull, Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

We recognize that amidst life's new beginnings and daily responsibilities, many continue to carry the weight of stress and trauma from global events and societal challenges. We invite you to engage with the our ongoing efforts to highlight discussions that connect to health and community. We acknowledge effects of trauma, and shares ways to foster healthy paths forward through a blog series, developed and written by Dr. Hendry Ton, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Equity by Design for Inclusive Excellence. Dr. Ton is also a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, with expertise in psychiatry, psychology, and public health. He writes in the spirit of sharing knowledge that can applied to healing, and contributing to building a beloved community.

Discover the Dynamic Discussions Deck

Created by UC Davis Inclusive Excellence to help people have thoughtful, respectful conversations

Blue cards are stacked on a polished wooden table, with a blurred meeting in the background.

Additional Resources

Hate Free Together is a partnership between UC Davis, Yolo County and the City of Davis.

Learn about the Race Matters resources from UC Davis Human Resources.

Read the latest Campus Community Book project and attend an upcoming CCBP event.

These 9 Tips for Managing Socio-Political Stress (download the pdf) were inspired by and adapted from lists created by the American Psychological Association, Texas Woman’s University, University of Michigan, Boston University and UC Davis students.

U.S. democracy depends on dialogues that represent a multiplicity of perspectives. Discover ways to pursue civic engagement.

Seek out a meaningful conversation through healing circles, educational events, and other community programming through the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center

Make an appointment with the UC Davis Ombuds Office, which is a confidential, independent, impartial, and informal problem-solving and conflict management resource.

Report an incident if you believe you have experience or witnessed an act of hate, bias, harassment or discrimination. 

Find Places and Spaces to connect

Resources specific to students

Explore mental health services available to UC Davis students.

Connect with community at one of the many Student Affairs centers and programs that speak to your identity and culture.

Resource specific to staff and faculty

Schedule a healing circle for your team at UC Davis Health. 

Take out a course through UC Davis Learning and Development on such topics as conflict competence, interpersonal skills, and communicating with patients. 

Explore mental health services available to UC Davis staff and faculty through the Academic and Staff Assistance Program. 

Tags

Dynamic Discussions Addressing Antisemitism Addressing Islamophobia Multicultural Calendar Elections and Civic Engagement Faith-based and religious identity Hate-Free Together