.jpg)
]]>
This program is open to:
International students (You are already in your intercultural experience!)
Future or returned study abroad students (Prep for or reflect upon your abroad experience!)
Students interested in applying to the Peace Corps or similar international service programs after graduation (Get ready to learn and serve abroad!)
Students who have an interest in preparing for other intercultural experiences or international development careers (Is this the path for you?!)
Students who want to prepare themselves as global citizens in a multicultural world (Everyone, right?)
As a participant in the Intercultural Engagement Prep pilot program, you will:
Meet other globally-minded students at UMBC;
Develop your critical analytical skills;
Increase your cultural self-awareness and critically reflect on your own unconscious bias;
Develop strategies to improve your intercultural communication and how you’ll apply it in your future career;
Recognize cultural differences, commonalities, perceptions, power and privilege dynamics, and how they can lead to conflict; and
Understand the importance of intercultural dialogue and intercultural citizenship competencies for fostering social justice.
This non-credit/no-fee course, PRAC 103 (course # 6928), will meet twice in the Spring 2025 semester at a mutually agreeable time, but the majority of the course is accessed through asynchronous learning. Students will be required to attend two globally themed events or activities and will also have independent assignments to complete in Blackboard. Upon successful completion of the program, participants will earn two UMBC certified digital badges titled Increasing Cultural Self-Awareness and Reinforcing Intercultural Dialogue."
You can register for the course under PRAC 103 and course number 6928 HERE!
]]>
Student curricular opportunities
Student co-curricular opportunities
Faculty/Staff engagement opportunities
The Center for Social Justice Dialogue transforms education and interrupts systems of oppression by engaging campus community members in developing the knowledge, awareness and skills necessary to build bridges across difference toward a more loving and just world. Research affirms that relationships across difference are key for building empathy, cultural humility, and belonging on campuses, and we believe that dialogue provides the skills, practices, and behaviors that lead to more loving and compassionate campuses.
The Center opened its doors in 2024 to expand campus dialogue engagement for faculty, staff and students grounded in intergroup dialogue theory, social justice education, and interdisciplinary critical education frameworks. In particular, the Center aims to engage in decolonized practices, and uses circle pedagogy and shared power approaches, to invite campus community members into deep curiosity and exploration. As part of this approach, the Center desires to engage members of the community as circle-builders --community members who are able to widen the circle of belonging to invite more of us to be in community together.
Through facilitated dialogues, facilitation training, course engagement, training opportunities, and immersive experiences, campus community members deepen their understanding of themselves, others, and the world in the context of systems of power, privilege and oppression. As a result of engagement, campus community members are empowered to radically imagine a more just world, while exploring shared responsibility and actions that create the world we all deserve.
The Center considers dialogue as not only a practice, but a way of being. Beyond facilitated dialogues and structured engagement opportunities, the Center draws on intergroup dialogue theory to explore skills, practices, and behaviors, or Competencies for Dialogic Community Building that engage dialogue practices on a daily basis toward inclusive excellence and a sense of belonging for all at UMBC.
]]>