IGDI Around the Table: Building Bridges Through Dinner and Storytelling

About this event

The UMass Amherst Intergroup Dialogue Initiative presents

Around the Table: Building Bridges Through Dinner and Storytelling

Good food, great company, and unexpected connections. Join students, staff, and faculty from across campus for a shared meal and an evening of lively conversation, storytelling, and creativity. Invite a friend!

Around the table, friendly hosts will invite us to share stories, practice active listening, meet someone new, and imagine the bridges we hope to build in our lives and communities, in all shapes and sizes.

RSVP Today!

Come hungry, bring your curiosity, and pull up a chair. There's a place for you at the table.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to igdi-info@umass.edu.

Format & Topic:

The Around the Table format is a catered, family-style dinner that invites people to gather and explore a question. Rooted in Indigenous practices, dialogic circles like those practiced at this event use different methodologies to support sharing and listening to others' perspectives. Each table will feature a host who will introduce creative guidelines and prompts to encourage everyone's participation, such as speaking from their own experience, listening with the intent to understand, and honoring confidentiality.

Guests will share and listen to personal stories about a particular topic. Each table will explore the question: What bridges do you seek to build? Who or what might be on the other side? Perhaps it's a relationship you would like to strengthen, a difference you would like to better understand, or a new connection you would like to make. Bridges come in all shapes and sizes, and each begins with bringing people, places, and ideas closer together.

Hosted by the Intergroup Dialogue Initiative (IGDI) at UMass Amherst.

IGDI builds the capacity of students, staff, and faculty to engage in dialogue across differences around issues that are critical and relevant to our community through facilitated programs, training, and campus partnerships. Our work creates opportunities for shared learning, relationship-building, and belonging throughout the university.