Cultural Studies “ Critical Methodologies 12(3) 197–212 © 2012 SAGE Publications Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1532708612440252 http://csc.sagepub.com To teach in varied communities not only our paradigms must shift but also the way we think, write, speak. The engaged voice must never be fixed or absolute but always changing, always evolving in dialogue with a world beyond itself. hooks, 1994, p. 11 This article by a White teacher and a Brown doctoral stu- dent explores tensions faced in promoting critical dialogues about immigration in the diverse community of Aurora, Colorado. Our analysis of these encounters between disen- franchised groups and dominant social structures register across the classroom, the community, group work, and a student–teacher relationship. We highlight the infrequency of dialogic encounters concerning pedagogy, race, and priv- ilege and the discomfort in their performance; tensions between pedagogical intentions, racial identity, and embod- ied knowledge of teachers and students; and the negotia- tions of race, power, and belonging in dialogic encounters. Ultimately we address dialogue broadly conceived as pro- cess that combines shared experiences in different yet con- nected sites: education, community conflict, and cultural differences. Our experiences in community-based work shed light on the complicated relationship between higher education, pedagogy, race, class, and communities—making the town–gown division more challenging and sometimes richer. This article contributes to the Communication Studies’ lit- erature on theories of cultural dialogue, based on challenges we faced when putting theory into practice in community- based research courses and local social justice struggles. Specifically, we attempt to elaborate theories of cultural dia- logue on/in the streets—considering how Cultural Studies, Critical Intercultural Communication, Critical Pedagogy, and Performance Studies work synergistically to illuminate par- ticular aspects of the process of applied cultural dialogue in new ways. 1 On/and in the streets can be understood through Giroux’s (1992) theorization of “border pedagogies,” both as antiracist pedagogy and as a political project, in which educa- tion is tied, “to the broader struggle for a public life in which dialogue, vision, and compassion remain critically attentive to the rights and conditions that organize public space as democratic social form . . .” (p. 134). In the spirit of the cultural dialogue we theorize, we ask the reader to engage in the same practices of patience, dis- comfort in knowing and unknowing, hard labor, and grace 440252CSC 12 3 10.1177/1532708612440252Willink and SuzetteCultural Studies Critical Methodologies © 2011 SAGE Publications Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav 1 University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA Corresponding Author: Kate G. Willink, Department of Communication Studies, University of Denver, 2000 E. Asbury Ave., Room 200, Denver, CO 80208, USA Email: kwillink@gmail.com Taking Theories of Cultural Dialogue From the Classroom to the Street Corner Kate G. Willink 1 and Jacquelynn Suzette 1 Abstract This article contributes to the Communication Studies’ literature on cultural dialogue, based on challenges we faced when putting theory into practice in community-based research courses and local social justice struggles. Specifically, we attempt to elaborate theories of cultural dialogue on/in the streets—considering how Cultural Studies, Critical Intercultural Communication, Critical Pedagogy, and Performance Studies work synergistically to illuminate particular aspects of the process of applied cultural dialogue in new ways. As we engaged in discussions on race and immigration in Aurora, Colorado, our experience required us to theorize particular aspects of the process of dialogue in new ways. This article contains voices of multiple authors in conversation and addresses the negotiations of dialogue, identity, and power. Ultimately we address dialogue writ large as process that combines shared experiences in different yet connected sites of education, community conflict, and cultural differences. Keywords Cultural Dialogue; Power; Pedagogy; Community Engagement