Skip to main content

Blogs

Recent Posts
Diversity and Inclusion April 18, 2023
Responding to Inappropriate Jokes through Dialogue
Dialogue provides a lens for responding to others when someone tells inappropriate, even harmful jokes.  In this post, we explore a four-step method for listening and responding in such situations.
Read More
Campus and Community October 06, 2022
Building Trust in Dialogue

Dialogue involves risk.  In this post, we offer some suggestions based on our experience in the Dialogue Zone about creating an environment in which participants feel capable of disclosing their authentic and genuine selves and maintaining it once it has been established.

Read More
Campus and Community September 06, 2022
Dialogue Zone Welcomes New Cohort of Facilitators
This month, the Dialogue Zone welcomed a new cohort of faculty, staff, and students as part of its annual facilitator training program.
Read More
Campus and Community October 01, 2021
The Dialogue Zone Launches New Cohort of Facilitators
The Dialogue Zone has big things on the horizon! This year we are blessed to be able to interact with our campus community through the implementation of the 2021-2022 Facilitator Cohort.
Read More
Campus and Community March 09, 2020
Seven Tips for Political Dialogue
How can we resist this urge to avoid political topics with others, the exploration of which is so important to the well-functioning of our democratic society?  Here are seven tips for exploring these topics through dialogue rather than partisan debate.
Read More
Campus and Community February 20, 2020
Dialogue in the Classroom
Dialogue can function as a powerful pedagogical mechanism in a classroom.  Dialogue invites students into the educational process as active protagonists who are learning how to engage the world in which they live in ways meaningful to them rather than passive recipients of the information that someone else provides.
Read More
Diversity and Inclusion January 28, 2020
Our First Dialogue Series: A Take on Equity
Our first series of conversations in the Dialogue Zone began as a sequel to an Inclusive Excellence Academy workshop held during the fall of 2019. The staff at the Dialogue Zone thought that creating a space for folks to reflect further on the issue would be a useful strategy to apply this concept to other areas of the life of the University. The idea was to inquire freely into the topic through a dialogical framework in which participants could revise and share their own ideas, experiences, and perspectives. Although in dialogue a path to action is not necessary, what we found with this series is that action might come as a seamless and natural subsequent step.
Read More
Campus and Community November 01, 2019
Dialogue as a Mechanism of Organizational Learning
Dialogue can be a valuable part of a larger process of collective action.  Through dialogue, participants can build mutual understanding before, during, or after specific steps are taken.  In such cases, dialogue can infuse a line of action on the part of a group or organization with the potential for individual and collective learning.  
Read More
Campus and Community October 28, 2019
What is Dialogue?
Dialogue is an ambiguous term, one for which people have many different meanings.  As the Dialogue Zone defines it, dialogue is “a communicative process in which people with different perspectives seek understanding.” However, dialogue does not always go smoothly, nor is it always easy.
Read More
Campus and Community October 08, 2019
Creating Opportunities for Dialogue and Continuing Conversation
The Dialogue Zone had a successful celebration of its launch during the week of September 23 to 27.  As the initiative moves forward and thoughts turn towards the programming that will take place in the space over the remainder of the semester, the power of dialogue to build understanding across diverse viewpoints is becoming increasingly evident.  
Read More