Undergraduate Course
For Fall 2024, the Intergroup Dialogue Program is offering one section of SOC WGS CRS CFE 230 (3 credits): Dialogue on Racism & Anti-Racism
Wednesdays at 3:45 to 6:30 pm, co-facilitated by Etije Walker and Amanda Kingston . This section foregrounds racial embodiment, healing justice, mindfulness and social justice education practices.
The first step to register is to complete an online interest form.
It takes just 5-10 minutes and we do our best to reply within 48 hours.
Have a question? Feel free to contact the facilitators listed above. Email contact information is listed on Our Team webpage.
More information about these courses is provided below, and FAQ and Student Perspectives are available as well.
SOC WGS CFE CRS 230 (3 credits) is open to students across colleges, majors, and years and meets the Arts & Sciences critical reflections requirement. The course is also approved for the Atrocity Studies and the Practices of Social Justice Education minor; may serve as an elective for the Disability Studies minor; and students may petition for it to be an elective for the Mindfulness & Contemplative Studies minor.
Overview of Intergroup Dialogue (IGD)
Intergroup Dialogue is a research-based pedagogy, an innovative educational model developed in higher education and practiced across school and community contexts, that centers a small group, highly interactive, experiential and reflective, learning environment. Intergroup Dialogue brings students together across social divides (or social identities, and social locations), often with a history of conflict and limited opportunities to engage in deep and meaningful discussion of persistently challenging issues such as systemic racism.
The learning goals of IGD include:
- Understanding social identities and the role of social structures and institutions in creating and maintaining inequality
- Developing intergroup and other communication skills
- Planning and enacting collaboration across difference
The Intergroup Dialogue Program has offered course sections focused on social divides – within a framework of intersectionality – that foreground race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, faith, and class based identities. The newest offering, facilitated Spring 2023 by Ionah Scully and D. Romo, foregrounds Indigeneity & Coloniality.
The courses are organized around multi-disciplinary readings (e.g., historical, sociological, psychological, personal narratives), experiential learning activities, small group work, and reflective writing and other exercises. Students will analyze and learn about issues facing groups on campus, in higher education, and in broader society. The aim is to create a setting for students to engage in open and constructive dialogue concerning issues of intergroup relations, conflict, and community-building. The program invites students to engage in Intergroup Dialogue as a form of Social Justice Education, engaging questions and practices of social responsibility.
Each intergroup dialogue is led by a team of two trained/experienced facilitators who frame and initiate co-learning through asking questions, identifying key points, guiding group process, and providing overall curricular structure for dialogue. This learning process generally builds trust; explores differences, common ground, and intersections; and leads to open discussion of issues that affect this community. Students learn about coalitions and how to work together creatively in teams that encompass, acknowledge, and embrace difference.
Class sizes are limited to approximately 12 to 18 students. To register, the first step is for students to submit an online placement form through the Intergroup Dialogue website; it takes about 5-10 minutes to complete. Once the form has been reviewed by the IGD Program, usually within a day or two, students are notified about placement in a course and at that point receive permission to register for SOC 230, WGS 230, CFE 230, or CRS 230 Intergroup Dialogue.
Questions? Visit our FAQ page.
For more information about our program’s facilitation team, visit Our Team.
Graduate Courses
NEW COURSE FOR SPRING 2024: Ethnic Studies in Education
CFE 600 3 credits
Tuesday 4:00-6:45
Join Professor Gretchen Lopez, faculty director of the Intergroup Dialogue Program, for “Ethnic Studies in Education,” this Spring 2024 semester at Syracuse University
This graduate course, a new offering, will cover:
- Theories, practices, epistemologies, pedagogies grounded in ethnic studies in education
- Historical aspects of student and community movements, contemporary struggle for ethnic studies
- Interdisciplinary research on the significance and impact of ethnic studies for students, educators
- Key concepts and central questions for anti-racist, decolonizing education
- Policy and case study examples
Offered through Cultural Foundations of Education (CFE), School of Education, and open to students from across programs & colleges (Ph.D., Master’s, CAS)
For more information, email: gelopez@syr.edu
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SPRING 2025: Inequality and Intergroup Relations in Education
CFE 640 3 credits
Monday 3:45-6:30
In Spring 2025, the graduate-level course will be offered again by the faculty director of the Intergroup Dialogue Program, Gretchen Lopez, PhD. This course examines theory, research, and practice important for intergroup relations in education, within the context of racial, ethnic, class based and intersecting inequalities in broader U.S. society. The course covers the critical pedagogy of intergroup dialogue courses, as a form/praxis of social justice education, and serves as one step in the preparation of graduate student (Masters and Doctoral) co-facilitators for the IGD program’s curricular, co-curricular, and community offerings.
For questions about facilitating intergroup dialogue, contact Gretchen Lopez, PhD: gelopez@syr.edu.
To learn more about graduate programs and courses in the interdisciplinary Department of Cultural Foundations of Education, visit the department’s website.