Knowledge

• Learn how culture, socialization, and social group memberships influence social identity development, with a particular emphasis on racial identity development and its intersections with other aspects that comprise social positionality. 
• Learn how social power and identity structure personal and group experience (including thinking and emotion); intra- and inter-group dynamics and conflict; and broader public discourse. 
• Understand how race and power order social life in the U.S. — within and through social institutions, ideologies, and everyday practices, today and over the course of history. Recognize how this system of racial power intersects with other systems of power, domination, and oppression; and how it is situated in a broader global field.
• Understand “dialogue” as used in the context of intergroup dialogue (IGD). Differentiate dialogue and IGD from other forms of communication, specifically, discussion and debate; learn the characteristics and implicit goals of each style of communication; learn how the collective norms and practices of IGD nurture and support dialogic communication. 
•  Differentiate social justice education and IGD pedagogy from other formal educational models and pedagogies, including traditional “diversity” approaches. Account for various ways that power shapes teaching-learning contexts and approaches. 
• Examine strategies for practically challenging racism and other systemic forms of oppression, discrimination, and bias — internally, interpersonally, in groups and organizations, and in society more broadly. 

Intellectual Skills and Practice

• Learn, apply, and refine the core skills of dialogue: purposeful sending (articulating information and personal testimony to an audience); active listening (hearing and receiving a message with understanding); and feedback (responding to others in a way that helps them to understand the impact of what they say and do). 
• Integrate theory, empirical research, personal reflections and experience, and dialogic principles to generate written and oral analyses. 
• Work with peers and other dialogue practitioners (e.g., faculty and staff) across social identities to practice dialogue, critical accountability, and strategic collaboration.
• Utilize content knowledge and dialogue facilitation skills to plan and execute dialogic group exploration of race, social identity, and other social justice-related issues.  

Personal and Social Values

• Examine and assess one’s own values and practices in relation to other individuals’ and diverse, public conceptions of social justice. 
• Interrogate the roles of “teacher” and “learner” in formal educational settings and beyond. Examine one’s potential to be both, and sense of accountability to co-learning communities; practice applying one’s evolving understandings about teaching-learning.
• Assess one’s passion, awareness, skills, and knowledge, as they pertain to the work of intergroup dialogue facilitation.
• Examine and progressively apply foundational values of dialogue: love and compassion for self and others; the humility and grace that stem from self-awareness and recognizing shared humanity; critical thinking and imagination; hope and resilience in the midst of challenge.  

Transformation

• Integrate and apply intergroup dialogue skills in new contexts, outside the classroom. 
• Apply dialogic and social justice learning — independently and in collaboration with others — to address matters of personal and social concern. 

Pathway to the IGR Minor at Skidmore

(Minimum 18 credits)

Foundational courses (6 to 8 credits):

• IG 201, 202, 203, 204, Peer-to-Peer Dialogues Across Difference
• SO 219 Race, Power, and Dialogue
• IG 262 Taking the Journey Home
• IG 275 A Black Woman Speaks: Will You Fight With Me?
• IG 251 Special Topics in Intergroup Relations
• IG 351 Advanced Special Topics in IGR Theory and Praxis

Advanced facilitation course (4 credits):

• IG/SO 361 Social Justice Dialogue: Theory and Praxis

Cross-disciplinary electives (3 to 4 credits):

• AM 331 Critical Whiteness in the U.S.
• AM 342 Black Feminist Thoughts
• BST 101 Introduction to Black Studies
• BST 205 Black Panther Archives
• EN 227 Introduction to African-American Literature
• GW 251 Confronting Castle
• LA 201 Introduction to Latina/o/e/x Studies
• LI 251 Libraries, Prisons, and the Humanizing Power of Information
• SO 204 Introduction to Race, Class, and Gender
• SW 212 Power, Privlege and Oppression: Advancing Social Justice
• TH 338 Black Theatre

Capstone experience (2-5 credits):

• IG 364 Practicum in Facilitating and
• IG 365 Dialogue Facilitation or
• IG 366 Advanced Social Justice Application

Sample path one:
First year	Fall: Open	Spring: IG201	2 credits
Sophomore year	Fall: SO219	Spring: Approved elective	7 credits
Junior year	Fall: IG361	Spring: Open	4 credits
Senior year	Fall: Open	Spring IG364 and 365	5 credits
			Total credits: 18

Sample path two:
First year	Fall: Open	Spring: Approved elective	3 credits
Sophomore year	Fall: IG275	Spring: SO219	7 credits
Junior year	Fall: Open	Spring: Open	0 credits
Senior year	Fall: IG361	Spring IG364 and 365	9 credits
			Total credits: 19