Building Connections with Dialogue (BCD) is an opportunity for professional development rooted in core intergroup dialogue practices. Driven by the need for more understanding and effective communication between faculty, staff, and students, the goals of the program are to: 

• Develop and practice skills to dialogue across different experiences and points of view
• Enhance understanding of how social identities influence interactions with colleagues and students
• Identify strategies to integrate dialogue into virtual and in-person communication
• Leverage dialogue to build more inclusion and create meaningful connections with staff, academic colleagues, course content, and students.

The BCD program offers participants a variety of tools, processes, and frameworks to develop more equitable and effective educational strategies, and integrate dialogue into a range of experiences with colleagues and students. Dialogue is a powerful educational tool with the capacity to enhance relationships between teachers and students (Goodman 2011), improve learning gains (Resnick et al 2018), enable communication about challenging issues and “hot topics” (Kaplowitz et al 2019), inspire critical self-reflection and understanding of structural inequality (Lynch et al 2017), develop connections across social identity groups (Zúñiga et al 2007), and model the principles of equity and respect (Huang-Nissen 1999; Romney 2003).

The Building Connections with Dialogue program is open to all Cornell faculty, lecturers, and academic staff.

This program could be for you if you want to:

• Develop skills for more effective communication with colleagues and students from different backgrounds
• Create more inclusive work and classroom environments
• Enhance your understanding of how diversity and social identities impact academic spaces
• Integrate dialogue into your virtual and in-person interactions