Academic Courses
Villanova offers various courses—at both the undergraduate and graduate levels—that are rooted in the dialogic approach.
Please email the Center for Dialogue for more information on course enrollment.
Dialogue on Identity and Social Justice
Dialogue on Identity and Social Justice: Specific Identity Topic
Through strategically facilitated dialogue on a specific identity topic and its intersections, participants explore their identities and lived experiences with the goal of increasing understanding of self, others, systemic (in)equity, (in)justice, and their own agency to enact change. Individuals learn the skills to engage in honest and dignifying conversations as they also build relationships and community.
- COM 5300
- 1 credit undergraduate course
- Typically offered 2 hours once a week for 7 weeks, or 14 hours total
- Offered by the Center for Dialogue and the Department of Communication
- Trained faculty and staff members facilitate each small class.
- Sections offered focus on 1 topic such as gender, socioeconomic status, religion/faith/spirituality, race, sexual orientation and disability.
- Courses carry the Peace & Justice attribute to be used toward an elective for the major or minor.
- Three 1-credit topical courses can be bundled to meet the Diversity 1 requirement for CLAS students and a free elective for VSB or Engineering students. Courses do not have to be taken in the same semester.
Students should register for COM 5300-100 and fill out the Course Application form.
Please email the Center for Intergroup Dialogue team with any questions.
Dialogue on Identity and Social Justice: Multiple Identities
Through strategically facilitated dialogue on the multiple identities students hold, participants explore their identities and lived experiences with the goal of increasing understanding of self, others, systemic (in)equity, (in)justice, and their own agency to enact change. Individuals learn the skills to engage in honest and dignifying conversations as they also build relationships and community.
- COM 5300
- Some sections are designated for particular populations of students, e.g., First Year Communitas students, Presidential Scholars, etc.
- 1 credit undergraduate course
- 2 hours once a week for 7 weeks, or 14 hours total
- Offered by the Center for Dialogue and the Department of Communication
- Trained faculty and staff members facilitate each small class
Students should register for COM 5300-110 and fill out the Course Application form.
Please email the Center for Intergroup Dialogue team with any questions.
Professional Program Courses
Intergroup Dialogue: Graduate Communication
This seminar will build on your understanding of the communication concepts of active listening and group process by teaching dialogic practices in a group format. Students will be given experiential educational tools to engage in sustained and meaningful dialogue on foundational social justice issues such as power and privilege through self-reflection, identity exploration, and dialogic listening. These tools will be used to help students learn how our everyday communication practices, e.g., language use, social rituals and casual conversations can lead to such problematic behaviors as stereotyping, cross-cultural mistrust and misunderstanding, and more.
Students will also learn how social structures and institutions play a role in allocating privilege and power and sustaining inequities. We will also explore on a metatheoretical level how these processes and concepts relate to the theories and perspectives from the foundational Communication theory courses.
- COM 8013
- 1 credit graduate course
- Schedule varies
- Offered by the Center for Dialogue and the Department of Communication
- Trained faculty and staff members facilitate each small class
Intergroup Dialogue: Communication Across Difference as a Legal Professional
Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) is a social justice education course in which participants come to understand their role and obligation to live purposefully as global citizens within a diverse world. IGD is based on the core belief that it is only through a process of sustained and meaningful dialogue that people will understand one another better through cultural misunderstandings and personal differences.
Through self-reflection, identity exploration, and other experiential educational tools, student participants learn how our everyday language, social rituals, and casual conversations can lead to such problematic behaviors as stereotyping, cross-cultural mistrust, and misunderstanding. Participants will also learn how structures in the legal system play a role in allocating privilege and sustaining societal inequities.
- LAW 7178
- 1 credit graduate course
- Schedule varies
- Offered by the Center for Dialogue and the Widger School of Law
- Trained faculty and staff members facilitate each small class
Intergroup Relations in Public Administration
This course is a dialogue-based, seminar-style course designed for public administration students interested in focused study of social justice concepts and cross-cultural communication within the public sector. We will explore issues of social group identity, conflict, community, and social justice issues concepts through the use of evidenced-based Intergroup Relations Dialogic techniques.
- MPA 8299
- 1 credit graduate course
- Schedule varies
- Offered by the Center for Dialogue and the Master of Public Administration
- Trained faculty and staff members facilitate each small class
Seminar in Cross-Cultural Communication in Health Care
This seminar will reflect current issues and trends of social justice in the nursing profession and healthcare system. Students will have the opportunity for focused study of social justice concepts, such as discrimination, oppression and health inequities, and cross-cultural communication through the use of Intergroup Relations (IGR) Dialogue Pedagogy.
Participants in the course will explore social group identity, conflict, community, and social justice issues in healthcare. The goal within this course is to have students engage with peers and to ask honest (and sometimes difficult) questions of one another. We also strive to have students move from having discussions and debates with one another to engaging in dialogue. We believe that the skills learned in the course will enable students to engage in dialogue around issues that matter to patients, providers, our community, and health care systems.
- NUR 4200
- 1 credit undergraduate course
- Schedule varies
- Offered by the Center for Dialogue and the College of Nursing
- Trained faculty and staff members facilitate each small class
Theory and Practice of Ministry IV: Seminar in Intercultural Competencies for Ministry
This course seeks to equip students to carry out ministry with sensitivity and effectiveness in the current multicultural context of American society. Utilizing a theological approach rooted in mutual respect and collaborative learning, the course focuses on developing cultural competencies for pastoral care, worship, and community life in diverse settings. Students will deepen their personal awareness of the intersectionality of identities together with their understanding of systemic injustice and interlocking social oppressions. They will develop skills for dialogue and engagement across lines of identity difference in order to more fully embody ministries of compassion and justice.
- THL 8804
- 1.5 credit graduate course
- Schedule varies
- Offered by the Center for Dialogue and the Master of Arts in Ministry and Theology
- Trained faculty and staff members facilitate each small class
Race, Justice and Dialogue Course (RJDC)
The aim of the RJDC is to expand and deepen students’ critical consciousness of power and difference and promote student action and advocacy in the service of social justice. The course connects the history of Villanova, the development of race as a construct, and manifestations of racism to students’ academic disciplines and practices. Throughout the course, students will engage in the practice of dialogue to process the course content through individuals’ identities and experiences.
- Prefix and course number varies by College
- 3 credit undergraduate course
- Offered by the Center for Dialogue and various academic departments
- Trained faculty and staff members serve as instructors and dialogue facilitators
- Courses carry the Peace & Justice attribute to be used toward an elective for the major or minor.
- Some courses may meet Diversity 1 requirement for CLAS students. (Consult syllabi.)
- COM 3291-001: RJD: Performance & Race-ing Jewish Identity (MW 3:20-4:35 PM); CRN 32980; Rose
- EDU 4242-001: Race, Justice & Dialogue in Education (TR 10-11:15 am); CRN 33288; Skrlac Lo
- ETH 3010-002: Race & Restorative Justice (TR 1-2:15 pm); CRN 33440; Shin
- PJ 3000-001: Race, Justice & Dialogue (TR 11:30-12:45 pm); CRN 34211. Potok
- PJ 3000-002: Race, Justice & Dialogue (TR 4-5:15 pm); CRN 34212. Anthony
- VSB3500-001: Race, Justice & Leadership (TR 4-5:15 pm); CRN 34733; Ferraro
- NUR 1105 (2 sections): Social Justice & Health Equity
- CPS 5940-DL1: Race, Justice & Dialogue (T 8:00-9:30 pm); CRN 34760; Haddoun