Intergroup Dialogues

An Introduction to Intergroup Dialogues

Welcome to AU’s Dialogue Program facilitated through the Center for Diversity & Inclusion. The Intergroup Dialogue Program, formerly known as Dialogue Development Group, was created in 2006 as a component of Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer's course Dialogue: Approaches and Applications, within the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program (IPCR). Today, it is managed by the Center for Diversity & Inclusion and in direct partnership with faculty and staff in IPCR.

The specific purpose of the intergroup dialogue program is to provide a space dedicated to constructive exchange among members of a group on matters pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion. More broadly, the purpose of these conversations is to advance change at the individual, organizational, community, and societal levels in the service of an increasingly respectful, inclusive, and equitable world.

Learning Outcomes of Dialogues

Consistent with these purposes, the specific aims of the intergroup dialogue program are to create conversations that:

• offer participants an open and brave space to process difficult and emotion-provoking societal issues.
• engage participants in a candid, genuine, and good-faith discussion of the harm wrought by bigotry, intolerance, and inequality relative to one or more intersectional social identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality)
• encourage deep personal reflection about inequality, societal disparities, discrimination, racism, and other “isms.”
• promote honest self-evaluation and awareness of personal biases affecting views of diversity and difference.
• identify and empower enactment of action steps that challenge and redress psychological, interpersonal, social, and structural drivers of discrimination and inequality.