Office of the Provost
Office of the Provost

Georgetown Dialogues Initiative

The ability to navigate challenging conversations across is embedded in Georgetown University’s values and mission statement. In fact, one of the first goals identified in the Georgetown Core Curriculum Learning Goals is for students to learn “to communicate and act with civility, respect difference, address questions of diversity, and engage in difficult dialogues around challenging ideas.” In our increasingly polarized world, this skill is more important than ever.

Launched in Spring 2024, the Georgetown Dialogues Initiative (GDI) is a university-wide effort to promote conversations across differing viewpoints. Through observing, practicing, and reflecting on the principles of respectful dialogue, we can build our community’s capacity to explore disagreement.

Current GDI programming includes faculty fellowships and various events designed to promote dialogue within Georgetown.

Available to full-time faculty from any discipline interested in developing or redesigning a course to integrate opportunities to deeply engage with and address any subject on which there is genuine intellectual disagreement to be studied and understood.

Available to full-time faculty teaching key first-year seminars who are interested in reimagining an element of their course to focus on issues of dialogue and inquiry.

Available to all faculty interested in learning to facilitate constructive engagement and dialogue across intellectual differences in any course.

Available on a rolling basis to all faculty to support course-related activities — such as field trips, guest lectures and other opportunities — designed to foster dialogue inside and outside the classroom.