Meeting the Moment: Community in Dialogue
Meeting the Moment: Community in Dialogue is a new initiative launching in fall 2024 that expands the College’s ongoing commitment to amplify the collective knowledge, tools, and resources of our faculty, staff, students, and the broader community. The College-wide Initiative promotes new and renewed ways of critically thinking about and engaging with one another on issues that impact the College community, and the smaller communities therein, both individually and collectively, through dialogues, education, and responsive engagement.
Meeting the Moment aims to centralize and highlight ongoing efforts, programs, and resources within our communities, and encourages ethical engagement and responsive dialogue on complex local and global issues. We invite our community to learn together by encounters with a range of perspectives, experiences, and narratives, and meet each of us where we are.
This Initiative features a series of planned programs, including facilitated discussions on collective grief and resilience; workshops addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and bias; civic action and engagement; and a plenary session featuring acclaimed Campus Read author James McBride with a discussion about complex relationships in shared community. Events under Meeting the Moment also include programs that began in 2023-24 (e.g., “Dinner with 12 Strangers”) and others that launched in earlier years (e.g., Community Vigils) as well as new dialogic opportunities listed below.
All programs are open to the Haverford campus community (students, staff, and faculty) only unless otherwise noted.
Community Dialogues
Dinner with 12 Strangers
Dinner With 12 Strangers is a program that is part of the Active Voice initiative fostering discourse among faculty, staff, and students on complex and intersectional issues. Join us for facilitated conversations and shared understanding as we explore the themes of social identities and political views.
Dinner With 12 Strangers events are open to current students, faculty, and staff only. RSVP is required.
RegisterDinner with 12 Strangers
Thursday, February 13 *canceled due to inclement weather
6:30–8:30 p.m.
President’s House
Dinner with 12 Strangers
Tuesday, March 18
6:30–8:30 p.m.
President’s House
Dinner with 12 Strangers
Wednesday, April 9
6:30–8:30 p.m.
President’s House
Active Voice Dialogues: Facilitator Training and Groups
Facilitator Training: Monday, January 13 to Friday, January 17
10:00 a.m..–3:00 p.m.
Dialogue Groups: Spring Semester, TBD
Lutnick 200
Open to current students, faculty, and staff only
As part of the initiative, Active Voices Dialogue, we are recruiting and training a number of faculty, staff, and students to become Dialogue Facilitators. The training will be held over the course of a week, January 13–17. Starting in Spring 2025, groups of 8-10 participants will meet to engage in critical conversation, ethical inquiry, and thoughtful engagement with one another.
Community Gatherings
Community Healing Space: Promoting Wellness in Difficult Times
Monday, May 5
11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Sound Bath
5:00–7:00 p.m. Sound Bath
Founders Great Hall
Open to current students, faculty, and staff only
In the midst of ongoing loss, uncertainty, and the quiet (or loud) ache of trauma, we invite you to a space of gentle care and collective healing. To hold space. To share breath. To find moments of peace in community. This space is facilitated with care and deep respect for all identities, experiences, and emotions. You are not alone.
Talks and Panels
Human Library Panel
Thursday, January 23
12:00–1:30 p.m.
Dining Center, Bryn Mawr Room
Open to current students, faculty, and staff only
This program focuses on the personal, lived faith experiences of the presenters. Topics include central faith practices, core stories, concepts of the Divine, sacred texts, major holidays, and helpful sensitivities and awareness.
"Attending to our humanity: empathy in times of conflict and uncertainty"
Thursday, April 10
4:30–5:30 p.m.
Lutnick 200
Open to the public
Join the Libraries for a discussion between Scott Franklin and Alia Hamdan, moderated by Ted Brzinski (Physics). This discussion is a form of resistance against the death and dehumanization that surrounds us and the rhetoric that shies away from difficult conversations.
Community Proposals
Members of our campus community are invited to propose additional events and activities to take place beginning in January and through the spring semester, aimed at:
- Deepening comprehension of pressing local, national, or global issues
- Facilitating discourse, contextual understanding, and community-building efforts
- Building religious and cultural literacy, intergroup communication, and collective long-term resilience
- Exploring the issues and impacts of the 2024 Presidential Election, and mobilizing voting power
Proposals for events or opportunities that examine diverse viewpoints, perspectives, or historical interpretations are encouraged. Funding for these programs will be awarded based on the degree to which they address the listed goals. To submit a proposal, please complete the application form.
Submit a Funding ProposalCommunity Care and Response
Stay up to date on the College’s response and resources in relation to Israel-Gaza.
Restorative Practices
Facilitates conversations about misunderstanding, conflict, and harm, and mediates harms or disputes in a restorative way.