On November 6, CSW is thrilled to host an event with
Patricia Gurin, the Nancy Cantor Distinguished University Professor Emerita of
Psychology and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. Gurin will
present and sign her new book, Dialogue
Across Difference: Practice, Theory, and Research on Intergroup Dialogue,
which was co-written with Biren (Ratnesh) A. Nagda and Ximena Zuniga.
A social psychologist, Dr. Gurin’s work has focused on
social identity, the role of social identity in political attitudes and
behavior, motivation and cognition in achievement settings, and the role of
social structure in intergroup relations. She is a Faculty Associate of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at
the Institute for Social Research and of the Center for African and
Afro-American Studies. She directs the research division of the Program on
Intergroup Relations, a curricular program co-sponsored by the College of Literature,
Science, & the Arts and the Division of Student Affairs. She has written eight
books and monographs and numerous articles on these topics. She is an expert
witness in the University of Michigan’s defense of its undergraduate and law
school admissions policies. In collaboration with Sylvia Hurtado, Eric Dey, and
Gerald Gurin, all of the Center for Post-Secondary and Higher Education at the
University of Michigan, she provided the expert report on the Educational Value
of Diversity for these lawsuits.
Gurin’s new book addresses ways in which higher education
institutions can productively incorporate the ever-increasing diversity of
their student bodies. The authors draw
upon a methodology called “intergroup dialogues,” which was first developed in
the 1980s. Intergroup dialogues bring
together an equal number of students from two different groups such as people
of color and white people, or women and men to share their perspectives and
learn from each other. Gurin and her co-authors’ extensive research with
college students persuasively demonstrates that such dialogues effectively
bridge gaps between individuals of different genders and ethnic backgrounds,
helping to repair the divisiveness that sometimes accompanies such differences
among large groups of people. The book’s
back matter states that the “ambitious and timely” book “presents a persuasive
practical, theoretical and empirical account of the benefits of intergroup
dialogue. The data and research presented in this volume offer a useful model
for improving relations among different groups not just in the college setting
but in the United States as well.”
--Ben Raphael Sher
Ben Sher is a graduate student in the Cinema and Media
Studies Program at UCLA and an editorial assistant and graduate student
researcher at CSW.
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Photo by Emily Tishhouse of Emily Kay Photography
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