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Day of Dialogue
Tuesday, October 27
A Five College Event |
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On October 27th (and on October 28th at UMass Amherst), faculty and staff from across the five colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, Smith and UMass Amherst) are invited to participate in the Day of Dialogue taking place on their campuses. The Day of Dialogue is intended to be a starting point for continuing conversations about important issues on our campuses, and in the world at large. As we work to foster diverse communities, it is imperative that we create and sustain campus environments that are welcoming for all and are free of bias and discriminatory attitudes and practices. We want our campuses to become vibrant communities where we can engage and interact with each other in the fullness of our common humanity while also embracing, understanding, and valuing the identities and differences that make each of us unique.
Intergroup dialogues have been occurring on our campuses with students in the past few years, and the ongoing research on this learning experience suggests that these dialogues are having a positive impact on students’ ability to interact effectively with others who are different from themselves in many dimensions of social identity (i.e. race, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation etc). Based on this promising research, we are interested in providing similar opportunities for staff and faculty as one way to develop more open and diverse campuses.
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What is Intergroup Dialogue? |
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Intergroup Dialogue, as it has been practiced at a number of colleges and universities across the nation, is a unique effort to engage people (mostly students and often staff and faculty members) in sustained engagements with others from varied racial, gender and class backgrounds and other areas of social differences. Conducted by specially trained facilitators, we have found it possible in these settings for students, faculty and staff to make significant gains in their understanding of themselves and others, in their ability to create positive relationships and empathically identify with people unlike themselves, in their understanding of the complex social world around them, and in their willingness to work toward a more diverse democratic society- on campus and off.
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What will happen on the Day of Dialogue? |
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On the Day of Dialogue, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to participate in short 2 hr. dialogues on the topics of Class, Gender, Race and Religion. Participation in each dialogue will be limited to insure the quality of the experience, so staff and faculty will need to register in advance to insure they have a spot in the dialogue. In order for the dialogues to be most effective, we will make every effort to maximize the diversity of the participants within the dialogue topic.
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Who will be facilitating the dialogues? |
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The dialogues will be facilitated by your peers from our campus. Staff and faculty from across the five colleges were trained this past summer in intergroup dialogue facilitation. Each dialogue will be facilitated by a diverse co-facilitation team made up of individuals from the different backgrounds represented by the dialogue topic. These are individuals who are interested in working on our campus with their colleagues to help all of us become more effective at talking about differences and finding common ground as we strive to foster a more diverse community.
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What happens after the Day of Dialogue? |
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Based on the outcome of the Day of Dialogue, we hope to create more sustained opportunities for faculty and staff intergroup dialogues, similar to those in which our students are already engaged.
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Day of Dialogue Schedule and Registration |
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For more information about the dates and times and to register for the dialogue of your choice, please click on the link below.
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