Wyoming Project Citizen:
Teaching Public Policy Through Student Engagement
January 30-31, 2015
Laramie, Wyoming
Panel Discussion: How Do We Promote Civil Discourse?
The panel will discuss the creation of Heal Up And Hair Over: A Wyoming Civility Reader, as well as the
issue of civil discourse in our culture. The panel discussion will be followed by a group discussion of the
essay Hamburgers in Jeffrey City by Marko Ruble found on pages 30-32.
Thinking and discussion questions for Hamburgers in Jeffrey City by Mark Ruble, pages 30-32
1. Based on the reading, how do you establish common ground with someone with whom you
disagree?
2. Is the example unique to Wyoming, or can this be done anywhere and by anyone?
3. Is this civility or is it something else? Avoidance, live and let live attitude, for example.
4. Does democracy demand some incivility in order to work?
About the Panel
Teena Gabrielson, University of Wyoming, Political Science Department
tgabrie1@uwyo.edu or 307-766-5383
Teena Gabrielson is Associate Professor and Department Head in the Political Science Department at the
University of Wyoming where she has taught political theory for the past eight years. She is one of the
contributing editors of Heal Up and Hair Over. Prior to coming to UW, Gabrielson taught at
Southwestern University, a liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Trained at the University of
California, Davis, Gabrielson’s primary research interests include environmental political theory,
citizenship studies, and American political thought. Her research has appeared in American Journal of
Political Science, Citizenship Studies, Environmental Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Theory & Event,
and elsewhere.
Shannon Smith, Wyoming Humanities Council
shannon@thinkwy.org or (307) 721-9244
Shannon Smith is the executive director of the Wyoming Humanities Council and leads the organization
in their mission to promote critical and creative thinking as a way of improving the quality of life in our
state. She is a historian, focusing on women in the American West and also American Indian history.
Her book on the history of the Fetterman Fight at Fort Phil Kearny near Buffalo, Wyoming, titled Give Me
Eighty Men, Women and the Myth of the Fetterman Fight, won the 2009 Wyoming State Historical
Society book award for non-fiction. She came to the humanities council from EDUCAUSE, the non-profit
membership organization for IT professionals in higher education where she conducted leadership
training and wrote extensively about technology’s impact in the college classroom. Prior to that she
taught history and social sciences at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation for seven years
and considers teaching American History to American Indians one of her greatest accomplishments.
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Leslie Capps, Wyoming Humanities Council
leslie@thinkwy.org or (307) 721-9243
Leslie Capps joined the Wyoming Humanities Council staff in 2012. Leslie holds a bachelor's degree in
psychology and a master's degree in educational psychology from the University of Wyoming. She has a
long and varied work history which includes running the Multicultural Resource Center at the University
of Wyoming to guiding sea kayak trips on the Yukon River in Alaska.
Mark Helmsing, University of Wyoming, College of Education, Secondary Education
mhelmsin@uwyo.edu or (307) 766-3250
Mark Helmsing joined the University of Wyoming in August as the College of Education’s new faculty
member for social studies education. An Assistant Professor in the Department of Secondary Education,
Mark defends his dissertation this semester at Michigan State University, where he taught social studies
education methods for the past five years. Before teaching in higher education, Mark taught high school
English and social studies in Indiana, Arizona, and overseas in Italy and the Scottish Highlands. He has
done research projects with middle and high school teachers in New York City Public Schools and in
districts throughout Michigan. His research examines how various beliefs, understandings, and
narratives that define America as a broad concept are taught in social studies classrooms, museums, and
in popular culture.
Audrey Shalinsky, University of Wyoming, College of Arts & Sciences, Associate Dean
AShal@uwyo.edu or (307) 766-4106
Audrey Shalinsky is Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Wyoming. A
professor of cultural anthropology and former Anthropology Department head, she has published
research on two locations, Afghanistan and Wyoming. She is the A&S liaison to the Wyoming SchoolUniversity Partnership and was a board member of the Wyoming Humanities Council for ten years.
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