In funding the grants, CACP aims to learn, how does the Rutgers community engage each other, what does public discourse look like at Rutgers, what are the priorities on each campus, and in what spaces do these dialogues take place?
Dialogues Across Differences
Dialogues Across Differences is a sequence of student conversations planned to foster dialogue on complex, sometimes controversial issues across differences; group discussions are aimed at moving beyond tolerance and finding common ground while seeking pragmatic solutions to current university-community issues, where appropriate.
In collaboration with campus Chancellors from Newark, Camden, and New Brunswick; we are bringing together faculty, undergraduate students, graduates and post-Docs to lead and/or participate in the dialogue series.
Dialogues Across Differences Grants Program
This program brings together faculty and staff in a sequence of conversations planned to foster critical dialogue on complex, sometimes controversial issues across differences. Group discussions are aimed at moving beyond tolerance while seeking pragmatic solutions to current conflicts; and aim to enhance capacity for dialogue of intersectional topics that may include religion, culture, disabilities, race, class, gender, age, LGBTQ+, and politics.
In collaboration with Rutgers Chancellors in Newark, Camden, RBHS and New Brunswick we have faculty, staff, undergraduate students, and graduates engaging in group dialogue settings.
Workshops to Advance Intergroup Relations and Dialogue Across Differences
The Committee To Advance Our Common Purposes in its efforts to build greater capacity for intergroup relations among faculty, staff and students that have opposing perspectives on difficult and controversial issues planned in 2018 a series of workshops. The Committee invited Charles Behling, Professor of Psychology from the University of Michigan to lead a series of Intergroup Dialogue workshops for RU faculty and staff to become familiar with the University of Michigan’s dialogic skill-building model. The UM-Model is an empirically based pedagogy that blends theory and experiential learning to facilitate meaningful conversations across differing perspectives, building intergroup relations, and increasing understanding of social group identity through the lens of intersectionality theory, inequality, and intergroup relations.
Fifty-six faculty, student affairs deans, center directors, and leaders from across Rutgers University participated in two-day workshops held at each of our campuses. Participants were introduced to the Intergroup Dialogue philosophy; skill-building techniques; demonstrations of curriculum and working structures; how to use the model to develop interactive programs; and teams from each of the campuses brainstormed program ideas to be implemented in 2019 with CACP funding.