Donna Kaplowitz, PhD (she/her/hers) is the director of the Difficult Dialogues Meet the Moment Initiative and LSA faculty co-director of The Program on Intergroup Relations. She works in partnership with the Student Life co-director to provide campus leadership in student learning in the areas of intergroup relations and social justice education. Donna teaches in the program, guides curricular activities, leads programmatic efforts to conduct research and is an academic advisor for the minor. Her research focuses on facilitating intergroup dialogue with specific attention to race topics in peer and near-peer settings.
Donna and colleague Dr. Stephanie Hicks are co-editing a new book Facilitating Transformational Dialogues: Creating Socially Just Communities (forthcoming, Teachers College Press). Her last book Race Dialogues: Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom (Teachers College Press, 2019) with Sheri Seyka and Shayla Reese Griffin was recognized as the book of the month by the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center and was a TCP best seller.
Donna's BA is from the University of Michigan in English and Latin American studies and her MA and PhD are in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her previous work at Johns Hopkins University focused on US policy toward Cuba. She taught civic engagement and social justice education for 15 years at Michigan State University before returning to her alma mater in 2019. In her free time, Donna likes to travel with her family, hike along Lake Michigan, run, paint, and chill with friends.
Educational background
- PhD in international relations, Johns Hopkins University
- MA in international relations, Johns Hopkins University
- BA in English and Latin American studies, University of Michigan
Recent publications
- Hicks, S., Rich Kaplowitz, D. (2024). Facilitating Transformational Dialogues: Creating Socially Just Communities. Teachers College Press.
- Kaplowitz, M. D., Rich Kaplowitz, D., & Liu, Y. (2023). Intergroup dialogue success in racially diverse high school classrooms. Multicultural Education Review.
- Rich Kaplowitz, D., Griffin, S. R., & Seyka, S. (2019). Race Dialogues. Teachers College Press.
Recent presentations
- Rich Kaplowitz, D., Thompson, M. (2024, January 25). Introduction to Intergroup Dialogue. [Webinar]. Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center.
- Rich Kaplowitz, D. (2023, November 16). Talking Across Difference. [Webinar]. Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center.