Image from Skidmore’s Intergroup Relations Website
Over the past few weeks, I had the pleasure of speaking with faculty and students in the Intergroup Relations (IGR) department to learn more about the critical conversations they are engaging in both online and in the classroom. With a strong emphasis placed on dialogue-based learning, the department creates a space where students discuss topics around race, social justice, gender, sexuality, class, religion, and nationality.
When asked what her initial hopes and aspirations were, Professor Kristie Ford, Founder of the Intergroup Relations Program, responded, “I never intended to start an Intergroup Relations (IGR) program. In 2008, I offered the first iteration of SO 219C: Race & Power. The course bridged sociological content on U.S. race and race relations with the process of dialoguing within and across different racial/ethnic identity categories.” This became the foundation for the IGR minor, the first to be offered in the country.
Unlike classes in sociology, political science, and other related fields, IGR is distinguished by “a willingness to engage in difficult topics that perhaps have emotional connections to the outside world,” says Professor Lisa Grady-Willis, Associate Director of the Intergroup Relations Program.
Emphasizing this, Professor Jenni Mueller, Director of the IGR Program, asserts that “we have to acknowledge the emotion and weight of issues” when taking part in dialogue in particular. Different from debate and discussion, which Professor Mueller defines as “presenting and overtaking arguments [and] coming together to build a consensus around a topic,” dialogue allows students “to build understanding and suspend assumptions, actively listen to how other people understand their reality, and create a greater understanding of the whole.”
Because the ability to read students’ facial expressions and social cues is a large part of the in-person experience, online learning proved to be a substantial change. Nevertheless, the department met the challenge, and as Professor Grady-Willis points out, the shift was “definitely a success for both our facilitators and participants.”
Different from last spring, where the sudden shift halfway through the semester meant that “so many things [were] already created in terms of community,” this semester involves building up trust and norms from the start, according to Professor Grady-Willis.
Pre-pandemic, the unique structure of classes, where students sit in a large circle facing each other, creates what one student, Amanda Gomez ’21, describes as a “space [that] is very personal.” Gomez, a Social Work major and Intergroup Relations minor, acknowledges that talking about social identities and social justice is not always easy or comfortable, but there is a lot to gain from leaning into one’s discomfort in such a setting: “I enjoy the space because you build a community of other students who are engaging in social justice conversations and are gaining skills and dialogue.”
Tucker Boyd ‘21, a Sociology and Social Work double major, also recognizes “the incredible community [that] has carried through” from their freshman year.
All three students I spoke to referenced Professor Mueller’s Scribner Seminar offered in 2017, “Freedom Dreams: Black Radical Imagination in the Struggle for Liberation,” as their first exposure to dialogue. Reflecting on their experience, Boyd said, “That was the first classroom where I felt like I was really participating in a group learning process.”
Although these seniors will graduate soon, it was interesting to turn back the clock and learn about their beginnings in the department. When asked whether she had any preconceived ideas about IGR before taking a class, Gomez responded, “If I did have a preconceived notion, it was that [intergroup relations] was going to help me--it was going to be really exciting and engaging and give me skills in places I didn’t think I would need.”
From our conversation, it is clear that her IGR classes have done exactly that for Gomez, who praises the department for teaching her how to approach a space with questions and curiosity, but also with the ability to listen. Not only “listening to respond,” Gomez is “listening to hear,” which has shifted her conversational abilities and allowed her to better understand other people, especially in situations where it can be difficult to find common ground.
Emma Porter ‘21, a Gender Studies major and Sociology and Intergroup Relations minor, admits that her IGR classes allowed her to undergo a complete transformation: “The courses really broke down who I thought I was and allowed me to rebuild who I want to be.” Self-reflection, an important part of growth, allowed Porter to come away with “a completely different understanding of femininity and feminism, and a more complex understanding of intersectional feminism.”
For Boyd, who grew up in a predominantly white community in southern Vermont, the presence of a robust IGR department largely influenced their decision to attend Skidmore. When asked to share some key takeaways, Boyd admitted that distilling the impact of their classes to a few points proved to be a challenge. They acknowledged that “IGR has allowed [them] to gain a more developed understanding of the racial caste system in the United States and the ways that white supremacy operates in terms of content and theory,” but has also “[provided] the skills to do lifelong work [in social justice].”
These are the kinds of takeaways the IGR faculty hope for. “Above all else for me,” explains Professor Grady-Willis, “I’d love folks to leave with the sense that this is not expendable knowledge, that it is now necessary to who I am, that I’m not leaving this at the Skidmore doorsteps, that now it’s something that has become a part of the way that I see the world.”
Reflecting similar sentiments, Professor Mueller says, “We want people to feel empowered after they’ve experienced these classes.”
For Gomez, Porter, and a few friends, their IGR experience truly allowed them to take matters into their own hands. Over the summer, these students lead informal dialogues with current students and recent Skidmore graduates in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black men and women at the hands of the police. Although Porter acknowledges the unfeasible nature of requiring students to take an IGR class, she hopes students will eventually be required to take a dialogue-based course: “People do not understand or have the awareness of how to actually engage in conversation and productive dialogue with different students--I think that’s something that is really necessary.”
As for the faculty, they recognize the tremendous growth they have accomplished. Professor Ford writes, “IGR has grown in significant ways over the last 10+ years. We went from a program of one faculty member, to having a Director, Associate Director, and affiliated staff/faculty who teach within the program. IGR classes are typically full, with waitlists, and some incoming students now report selecting Skidmore because of our IGR minor.”
Professor Mueller sees the department heading in a new direction in the future, one of applied application of dialogue outside the classroom. Other areas of growth include increasing the number of faculty and thinking about additional identity categories.
When asked how students can apply their new-found knowledge to today’s world, Professor Ford responded, “IGR provides students with the theoretical frameworks to understand systemic injustices like the racialized health disparities in COVID-19 outcomes and ongoing police brutality that is disproportionality affecting Black and Brown communities. It also gives them practice using dialogic communication and facilitation skills, which they can apply to their personal and professional lives in college and beyond.”
In our own college community and broader society, students can work to improve their intergroup relations by acknowledging “a fear of interacting honestly,” which Professor Grady-Willis says often gets in the way of communication. Adding to this, Professor Ford writes, “Changes need to happen on a range of levels – individually, interpersonally, and structurally. IGR, however, is one tool that helps students, staff, and faculty learn to actively listen to lived experiences that differ from one’s own, and strive for understanding across those differences.”
For students interested in taking an IG 201 dialogue course in the spring of 2021, please fill out the following application: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M388WP9. More information on the department can be found at https://www.skidmore.edu/igr/.