Robert Cavalier (born 1947) is an American philosopher and Teaching Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University.
An early proponent of the Computational Turn in both teaching and research, Cavalier established and organized some of the first workshops and conferences in the newly emerging field during the 1980s.
In 2011 he edited Approaching Deliberative Democracy: Theory and Practice (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2011) and in 2013 he co-authored the Pittsburgh Civic Health Index for the National Conference on Citizenship.
It has hosted workshops on the importance of developing the capacity to hold these kinds of forums, including the need to train moderators, recruit participants, prepare background materials and select resource panelists.
The site contains detailed documentation of a broad range of forums, including City Budgeting, the challenges of climate change at the local level and even an attempt to envision “foros deliberativos” on the island of Cuba.