ROOTED Dinner & Dialogue Series:
The ROOTED Dialogue Series invites all members of the Barnard and Columbia community to engage in dynamic, peer-led dialogues about identity, oppression, and social responsibility. Workshops explore aspects of the Columbia experience through interactive techniques including reflective exercises, role-playing, literature, experiential exercises, games, videos and more. Through a variety of activities, students learn communication and conflict resolution strategies to find healthy ways to talk about differences and building a socially responsible community. Dialogues are held several times a semester on Thursday evenings.
Request a ROOTED dialogue for your group
Request a dialogue for your group!
In addition to ROOTED's open programs (the Dialogue Series), many communities, including residence halls, student organizations, fraternity and sorority chapters and athletic teams request ROOTED workshops for their constituencies. These workshops allow groups to build new commitments to inclusion and equity, work through challenges and build trust.
About the Facilitation Team
ROOTED’s tight-knit cohort of peer facilitators are trained by the Multicultural Affairs staff. The facilitators explore customs, beliefs, identities and power differentials, grounded in the belief that small-scale relationships and understanding must be at the root of large-scale social and political change. ROOTED teaches anti-bias strategies in conjunction with conflict resolution to help students create a community that is truly anti-oppressive. ROOTED facilitators receive intensive training in facilitation skills and dialogue development to allow them to create meaningful spaces of peer-led dialogue for students across the Columbia community.
Apply to become a ROOTED Facilitator
ROOTED primarily recruits student facilitators during spring semester who will begin the following fall. Interested students should contact rooted@columbia.edu to request an application.
Potential facilitators are highly encouraged to attend ROOTED programs, including ROOTED Dialogue Series programs, before they apply.
Students who are selected must attend a mandatory weekend retreat training at the start of each semester in which peer facilitators will learn how to facilitate, develop programs to share with the Columbia community and get to know their follow ROOTED members. Selected facilitators are also expected to make a weekly commitment of approximately two hours, currently scheduled for Thursdays from 6:00–8:00 p.m. Weeks that are not spent hosting ROOTED Dinner & Dialogue sessions will be utilized for facilitator skill-building, planning and cohort development. The ROOTED facilitation experience is structured such that work required outside of weekly meeting times will be minimal.
We welcome Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, General Studies and Barnard College undergraduate students of all identities and experiences who are interested in social justice to apply to become ROOTED facilitators.
ROOTED (Respecting Ourselves and Others Through Empathy and Dialogue) is dedicated to creating spaces of solidarity, empathy and learning for members of the Columbia community to explore identity, power and privilege. Led by trained student facilitators, ROOTED hosts respectful and informed discussions about diversity and explores the commonalities and disparities among the social and political treatment of different groups in society. ROOTED facilitators lead open dialogues through the ROOTED Dialogue series and work with student organizations, residences and other constituencies to create tailored dialogue-based programming.
Questions? Email rooted@columbia.edu.