Donna Hicks, Ph. D.

Author of Dignity

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on Pinterest
  • Home
  • Keynote Speaking
  • Book
  • Bio
  • Blog
  • News
  • Events
  • Contact
 RSS
Yale University Press
(September 6, 2011)
240 pages
$27.50
ISBN: 978-0300163926

Buy the Book

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound

Recent Posts

  • United by Dignity
  • If Indignity Has Torn Us Apart, Then Dignity Can Put Us Back Together Again
  • Dignity Reign Supreme
  • A Father’s Reflection on Dignity
  • In their own words: Reflections from two young Dignity Agents

Archives

United by Dignity

November 27, 2016 by Donna Hicks Leave a Comment

There has been a lot of discussion recently about identity politics–whether or not they played a role in Secretary Clinton’s defeat.  Some say that her focus on diversity—on groups such as African-Americans, Latinos, the L.G.B.T. community and women strengthened her support among them, but alienated and excluded other groups.  Donald Trump called the other groups—the “forgotten men and women”—largely composed of the white working class and white evangelicals.  The people in these groups created what has been called the “diversity backlash,” which some have claimed,, with their votes, led Donald Trump to victory.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog

If Indignity Has Torn Us Apart, Then Dignity Can Put Us Back Together Again

November 15, 2016 by Donna Hicks Leave a Comment

I have written Op-ed pieces about the wars in Syria and Libya, highlighting the role dignity could play in healing the wounds of those conflicts.  Never would I have imagined that I would be writing about the uncivil war in my own beloved country, brought on by the protracted presidential election.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog

Dignity Reign Supreme

June 30, 2015 by Donna Hicks Leave a Comment

shutterstock_290954246It was astonishing to see “Equal Dignity” on the front page of The New York Times last weekend. It was a good day for Dignity all around. The Supreme Court ruling making gay marriage a right nationwide focused its argument on protecting the inherent worth of all people. It was a long awaited decision for the gay community and for all of us who care so deeply about how people are treated, especially under the law. There is one thing, however, that has been missing from the ensuing discussion after the ruling, overshadowed by the joyful celebrations.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog

A Father’s Reflection on Dignity

June 23, 2015 by Donna Hicks 1 Comment

This is the last guest blog about the remarkable dignity work happening at the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, NY.  Don Shacknai is the father of one of the middle school students who studied Dignity last with with his teacher, Mike Wilper.

DON S.
When our son Noah came home from school sometime in the second week of 6th grade at The Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, he used the word “dignity” in a sentence. He’d never spoken that word before and we weren’t expecting it.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog, Dignity Tagged With: conflict resolution, dignity, dr donna hicks, mental health

In their own words: Reflections from two young Dignity Agents

June 11, 2015 by Donna Hicks Leave a Comment

The last post was by Mike Wilper, a middle school teacher at Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, NY. This post is by two of his students, describing their experiences learning about dignity.

IMG_1368

AIDAN K.
Dignity, such an underrated word. It impacts you and changes your life. It is the center of triumphs and when disregarded, the beginning of wars. When my humanities teacher Mr. Wilper introduced us to the word dignity, it seemed like a word used as a term of pity. “Leave the man his dignity,” people would say. That was the meaning of dignity, no more no less. But when I met Mr. Wilper, I realized how impactful the word really is.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog

More Young Dignity Agents Ready to Change the World

June 1, 2015 by Donna Hicks 3 Comments

IMG_1318-1Mike Wilper, a middle school teacher and Master Dignity Agent at the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, New York, has written this guest post about his remarkable and inspiring work with his students.

Note: Soon to come will be a blog by Mike’s students describing their experience with the dignity curriculum. Following that, a parent of one of the students will also post a blog on the changes he sees in his child after learning about dignity.

“So long as students must surrender a piece of their dignity to the current system, many will continue to withhold a significant part of themselves from the process of learning.” – Robert Fuller

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog

The World’s Youngest Dignity Agents

May 17, 2015 by Donna Hicks 6 Comments

DignityAgentFor the past 12 weeks, Carol Gramentine’s third grade class at Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth, Texas, trained to become Dignity Agents. At the invitation of the Headmaster, Dr. Gary Krahn, I gave a series of talks last fall at the school–for teachers, administrators, students and parents. Dr. Krahn was committed to establishing a culture of dignity at Trinity Valley, and Carol Gramentine was the first to take up the challenge of teaching her third grade students the basic building blocks of dignity.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog

Dignity’s Greatest Challenge: Our Ancestors’ Brain

May 2, 2015 by Donna Hicks 2 Comments

shutterstock_226790362I attended a Neuroscience and Social Conflict conference at MIT this week, sponsored by Beyond Conflict and Saxelab, MIT’s Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. The goal of the conference was to examine the practices of the conflict resolution community to determine whether research in neuroscience could shed light on the effectiveness of our work. For example, one of the assumptions about resolving conflict that was being challenged by our science colleagues was that resolution to conflict requires a “rational” approach. The idea is, bring people together to have dialogues about the issues that divide them and you will ultimately be able to resolve the differences. Well, how many well-meaning conflict resolution organizations have convened dialogues in, for example, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? I would answer that by saying hundreds if not more. So why hasn’t that conflict been resolved? What else is going on in these intractable conflicts that our methodologies are not reaching? What are we missing?

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog

Dignity Bucket List

April 22, 2015 by Donna Hicks 1 Comment

train stationDavid Brooks, NY Times Op-Ed columnist, stirred up a lot if interest with his column last week entitled, “The Moral Bucket List”. He tried to come up with a list of qualities that moral giants possessed–people whom he describes as having a powerful inner light that radiates out into the world, making us all feel good.

We admire these people. We want to be like them. Among the qualities that he came up with to describe these morally evolved beings were humility, generosity of spirit, depth of character. These “good people” were good at relationships, good at loving, good at embracing one’s “weaknesses.” They were people with a calling—deriving meaning from something bigger than themselves. They were more than comfortable with being in service to others. No narcissism in these folks.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog, Dignity Tagged With: conflict resolution, connection, dignity, dr donna hicks, mental health

Practical Dignity: It's all about Connection

April 21, 2015 by Donna Hicks Leave a Comment

ColumbiaDignityClass-Spr2015Every semester I teach a weekend class at Columbia University through the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution in the Teacher’s College. The course is entitled, Healing and Reconciling Relationships in Conflict: A Dignity Approach. It is always a powerful experience. I love sharing my learning about dignity with 20 graduate students from all over the world. This semester was different. I had only 9 students.

Continue Reading...

Filed Under: Blog

Next Page »

Copyright © 2018 Donna Hicks