Dialogue groups

The Xenia Institute supports three levels of programming, all of which center around dialogue. The first and most immediate of these is the dialogue groups. These are small groups consisting of University of Oklahoma students, faculty, and Norman community members. These diverse groups represent a cross section of the Norman community and their members’ expertise in a variety of areas. They meet monthly to engage in group dialogues.
The process of dialogue groups is threefold and takes place over a year and a half. In the first six months, the group is introduced to the tools of dialogue. In the middle section, the tools are put to use dialoguing about social issues, particularly those affecting the local community. In the third section, the groups take the experiences of the first year and turn dialogue into action as they facilitate a project in the community.

Public Events

The second level of programming is public events. These events happen at the community level and are meant to be the beginning of learning about and working on an important issue in our society. These events take the format of a uniquely interactive public forum. Instead of scholars each giving short speeches to the audience and not interacting with each other, public events are constant dialogues. Speakers dialogue on stage with each other and with the audience. At the conclusion of the program, there is an opportunity for furthering the work that has taken place, through more learning and/or organizing.
Past public events have been titled “Perspectives on Conflict: The Media, the Military and the Public” and “Don’t Look Away: Violence Against Women and Human Rights in Oklahoma.”

Online Magazine

The third and most global of Xenia’s programs is the Xenia Institute’s online magazine, Dialogic. The magazine serves as a virtual forum for dialogue and is updated daily with original blogs, news and analysis, and/or feature series and articles. The bloggers and writers also represent Xenia in the larger blogosphere by entering into the dialogue that occurs there. Through publishing original content through its online magazine, the Xenia Institute holds space open for thoughtful dialogue on important issues.

Annual Award

In addition to its three levels of programming, each year The Xenia Institute presents the Sam Matthews Social Justice Award in recognition of a community advocate for justice. The Institute gives this award as a way of honoring those achieving the ‘transformation through dialogue’ of which the Xenia vision speaks. Executive Director Bob Thomas describes the award, “With this award, we seek to demonstrate to the community that social justice isn’t conducted only by those at the very top levels of society. All of our recipients would call themselves ordinary people who sought change because their hearts told them to. This award reminds us that we all have the power to enact change in situations that we recognize as wrong.”
The award’s namesake, Sam Matthews was a Norman realtor who in 1967 was the first to sell a home to an African American family. By selling the home to University of Oklahoma professor Dr. George Henderson and his wife, Barbara, Matthews had defied the unofficial real estate practices of the time, said his wife, Sally Matthews. Both Sally Matthews and Reed said that Sam Matthews wasn’t trying to commit an act of social justice when he sold the home. It was simply the right thing to do, something in line with Matthews’ view of a world where “everyone has a right to do what they wish to do and to excel and to be accepted,” she said. It is in this tradition of citizens standing up for what they believe that the Sam Matthews Social Justice Award is given.