IGD: InterGroup Dialogue Program

What is IGD?

Several IGD participants pose for a group selife.Intergroup Dialogue [IGD] in Tertiary Education is a research-based practice that brings together participants of different and common social identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious identity, ability status, citizenship/immigration status, socio-economic background, etc.) to learn and engage meaningfully about their differences and similarities, and their perspectives on diversity, campus climate for inclusion, and societal issues.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offers IGD for for SJSU Students, Faculty, Staff and Administrators during the spring semester 2023 through an 8-week program.

Why IGD?IGD Participant counts while another participant looks on.

As a facilitated, structured approach for engaging in face-to-face interactions engaging with issues of diversity, social inequality, and social justice, IGD can have a lasting impact on dialogue participants and on those who train to become IGD facilitators. IGD can build one’s capacity for inclusive excellence and engagement with social issues in day-to-day work.

Three IGD Participants engaged in dialogue.IGD objectives:

1. Develop intergroup understanding where participants explore their own and others' social identities and statuses, and the role of social structure in relationships of privilege and inequality;

2. Foster positive intergroup relationships developing empathy and motivation to bridge differences of identities and statuses in situations of collaboration and in conflict; and

3. Foster intergroup collaboration for personal and social responsibility toward greater social justice, inclusive leadership, and teamwork.

IGD Institute

ODEI invites SJSU faculty, staff and students to engage in an 5-session IGD Institute to learn and practice Intergroup Dialogue pedagogy during the Fall Semester of 2024 (and into early January of 2025).  We hope to train and prepare facilitators to serve in our InterGroup Dialogue 8-week program InterGroup Dialogues for Students, Faculty and Staff during the Spring semester of 2025!

Find out more information about the IGD Institute.  Applications are closed at the moment.  We will re-open applications for the IGD Institute in August of 2024.