This year’s conference theme is Choosing Dialogue: Mapping the Course Through Difficult Conversations.

We are living in an age of increasing polarization and anger in our public discourse often reinforces hostile modes of interaction with people who hold different viewpoints. This polarization has impacted our ability to work within and between communities.  Dialogues help deepen understanding of personal, group and intergroup relationship issues. Many people across the nation and world are wrestling with questions about how to engage with others who do not share the same values and/or identities and feel helpless around authentic engagement when we can’t even agree on basic facts for an informed dialogue. Further, many wrestle with how we can support respectful, transformative dialogue in face-to-face meetings, online contexts, and in physical and virtual classrooms. 

We believe that dialogue and dialogic methods of engagement are critical for addressing society’s most pressing challenges. As such, we have identified three themes for the conference that you will see woven through the various offerings throughout the conference.  The themes are 1) Building Community, 2) Dialogue to Foster Change, and the 3) Benefits of Dialogue.  Further context for these themes are as follow: 

1. Building Community.  In the aftermath of national elections, our country is more polarized than ever before.  We invite proposals that help conference participants learn about how dialogue and dialogic methods can encourage people with differing values and identities to enter and remain engaged in dialogue, even when they do not go smoothly.  Review the schedule for sessions that help us create space and opportunity for developing trust in an effort to build stronger relationships within and between communities.

2. Dialogue to Foster Change.  As our country, and institutions of tertiary education, continue to reflect on the impacts of structural racism, climate change, and other social issues, review the schedule for sessions that assist conference participants in using dialogue and dialogic methods to foster social change.  

3. The Benefits of Dialogue. Research has documented the educational impacts of the presence of diversity on college and university campuses, as well as how dialogue (e.g., Intergroup dialogue or IGD) amplifies these benefits.  Review the schedule for sessions that help identify the benefits of dialogue so that practitioners can continue to ground their work, and justify the acquisition of institutional resources to build infrastructures to support dialogue within differing institutional settings.