Who We Are

The CU Dialogues Program, housed under CU Engage: The Center for Community-Based Learning and Research within the School of Education, serves the campus at large by providing facilitated dialogue coaching and dialogue practice for students, staff and faculty at CU-Boulder and the broader CU community.  

What is a Dialogue?

A dialogue is a facilitated conversation that invites participants to share their own perspectives and experiences and listen to others with curiosity.  Dialogue promotes mutual understanding of an issue even when participants disagree.

What We Do

The CU Dialogues Program is committed to the practice of designed dialogue that intentionally focuses on equity, justice, and the inclusion of diverse voices. We believe dialogue must be coupled with research, learning, reflection and assessment.​

We engage five primary work areas that intersect and strengthen one another to advance a culture of dialogue at CU Boulder and the surrounding community: 

  1. Dialogues Curriculum: We offer a 3-credit undergraduate course, "Dialogue Across Difference," which provides students the opportunity to learn what dialogue entails, practice dialogue, and be trained as dialogue facilitators.

  2. Facilitated Dialogues: We facilitate classroom dialogues, developed in consultation with faculty, that extend learning about course topics​ and community dialogues held outside of CU classes.

  3. ​Staff-to-staff DEI Dialogues: We develop staff-to-staff diversity, equity and inclusion dialogue programming, in consultation and collaboration with requesting units​. Our current focus in this area is collaborating with CU’s Finance and Business Strategy Unit to develop the FBS Dialogue Project.

  4. ​Professional Development: We offer professional development for graduate students and faculty in dialogic pedagogy and dialogue practices.

  5. Research and Development: We conduct assessment on our classroom dialogues and contribute to the fields of dialogue practice and dialogue as a pedagogy through funded research, conference presentations, publications and networking with colleagues at CU and around the country.