Community Dialogue Topics

What various experiences of race and identity exist at L&C?  How might I contribute to a connected community across racial divides?  How might we as a community have better conversations about race?

Join a small group of L&C community members to participate in a pilot dialogue series to develop an understanding and build relational trust with community members across racial divides.  We offer a student cohort and a staff & faculty cohort in this pilot series. These racially diverse cohorts will meet three times in March.  Dialogues will be facilitated by trained Community Dialogues practitioners.

As you think about your experiences with social media and the internet, what do you gain and what do you lose? What hopes do you hold when you engage with social media? Are there consequences to your use of social media that leave you unsettled in some ways? Community Dialogues offer an opportunity for small, structured conversation as we explore our various approaches and values.

This dialogue is part of the 2024 Gender Studies Symposium.

Environmental work is an oft-cited strength of the College. Yet we come at it in diverse ways that are often siloed. How might we leverage our diversity of approaches into even greater strength? And what connections can we fortify or build afresh to do so? We’re thinking broadly about “environment” – it’s not just rocks and trees! If we reimagined it to include the diverse entanglements between people and our biophysical, virtual, or imagined surroundings, might you see yourself in that work? We invite you to join this discussion even if you don’t currently self-identify as someone doing “environmental work.”

We are holding four one-hour, small group dialogue opportunities, each mixing a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives. These dialogues aim to engage LC faculty and staff from all three schools to explore our common purposes and differences around environmental work alongside the College’s strategic planning process. Subsequent gatherings will offer opportunities to share and discuss ideas for specific activities or collaborations.

 What role do trees and forests have in your life? What do you value when it comes to public spaces like forests? Students in Environmental Engagement (ENVS 295) are working with Community Dialogues to design and host dialogues on the value and future of our public forests.

You don’t have to be a “treehugger” to join; whether you’re an avid outdoors person, a concerned citizen, or simply curious about the role forests play in our world — these dialogues gather diverse groups to share perspectives, experiences, and ideas on how these natural spaces impact us all in unique ways.

How is the conflict in Gaza and Israel, and other peoples’ reactions to it, impacting you? Let’s talk about it. Whether you are more or less actively involved in responding in the LC community to the on-going news about the conflict, we want you to feel welcome to come talk and listen in a small, confidential, structured dialogue.

The violence that has spiked in Gaza and Israel in recent weeks is clearly having an impact across the world, including on our Lewis & Clark community. The news about the conflict itself, as well as the responses to it on and off campus, evoke a range of thoughts, emotions, and actions.

We believe it is vital for us at this time to have opportunities to be in thoughtful dialogue with each other to reduce tensions, engage with each other deeply around the complexities of our experiences, and to understand how our actions impact each other. Engaging in this way can help us build resilience for listening and speaking to understand, even when we disagree, and reinforces our communal strength. This dialogue will launch following a Teach In on Palestine and Israel.

Students, staff, and faculty are all welcome.

If this dialogue could be right for your group or community, please reach out to communitydialogues@lclark.edu and we will be happy to work with you.

 How do you seek to bring about change for the better in your community and/or the larger world? What actions–large or small–do you take to promote your values and reimagine the future?

This dialogue originally launched as part of the 2023 Ray Warren Symposium.

 What does it feel like to belong? What times in your life have you felt like an insider and when have you felt like an outsider? How might we cultivate a greater sense of belonging in our lives and in our communities?

Launched as follow up to events on this theme during the 2022-23 academic year, these conversations provide an opportunity for community members to reflect on their sense of belonging in their lives and on our campus.

The Belonging Dialogue is a great way to connect with coworkers and peers and engage in a different kind of conversation that can open doors and inspire further dialogues — reach out if you’d like to schedule a dialogue for your group!

In collaboration with Kim Brodkin, Director of Gender Studies Symposium, Director of Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies, and Associate Professor with Term of Humanities, we developed Community Dialogue opportunities focused on themes relating to gender, which launched late spring 2023 as part of this year’s Gender Studies Symposium.

There are currently no upcoming Community Dialogues on Gender. Check back for updates or reach out if you’d like to schedule one for your group!

Students, faculty, staff, and alumni are all invited to participate in a Community Dialogue on the topic of the L&C Pioneer Mascot.

The Pioneer Mascot Dialogues have concluded. Please visit the Mascot page to learn more and see updates on the Mascot community engagement process

What do borders do to us… for us? How do borders influence our experiences with physical space, identity, relationship, culture, access? When might they distance us from others… and when might they serve connection and community?

Find this year’s symposium schedule and dialogue events here.