What (Is It) About Dialogue? We Make the SoTL Road by Walking

Abstract

The authors of this article engaged in a serendipitous “dialogue about dialogue” in summer and fall 2023. Through correspondence and live discussions, we pondered about the nature and affordances of the act of dialogue among colleagues in SoTL. We represent diverse disciplinary and national identities yet found in our conversation kindred thinkers and unexpected points of theoretical commonality. We offer here a glimpse into the dialogue we engaged in, illuminating the complex nature of transdisciplinary and intersubjective conversation through the lenses of hermeneutics, immediacy, and vulnerability. While we do not aspire to reach a definite framework for the role of dialogue in SoTL, we explore the transformative potential of engaging deeply in exchanges that allow new possibilities to emerge. This piece has been co-created to invite others into the conversation—we offer it as an opening rather than a conclusion.