Timme-Laragy Named Dialogic Classroom Fellow
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Professor of Environmental Health Sciences Alicia Timme-Laragy has been named to the inaugural cohort of 2025-26 Dialogic Classroom Fellows by the Intergroup Dialogue Initiative (IGDI).
The initiative, launched in spring 2025, aims to create spaces for dialogues across differences on our campus around issues that are critical and relevant to our community; build campus-wide capacity among faculty, students, and staff to facilitate intergroup dialogue; and position UMass Amherst as a national and global leader in intergroup dialogue practice and research.
Nineteen full-time faculty members and instructors representing nine schools and colleges were selected for the program. The fellows will develop knowledge and skills to infuse and expand dialogic practices in their classrooms through the program, which is supported through a partnership between the IGDI and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
The fellowship started with a two-day intensive workshop on August 26-27 led by Essential Partners, a non-profit organization with extensive experience in helping people build relationships across differences through reflective structured dialogue. Fellows will participate in a community of practice across the 2025-26 academic year that will amplify and extend the use of dialogic practices in their classrooms through hands-on training, mentorship and coaching by experienced practitioners and ongoing support for skill building and project development.
Additional information about the Dialogic Classroom Fellows program is available on the IGDI website.