Engaging Dialogue at CU

Juneteenth Address 2024

Dr. Danielle Hodge

Dr. Danielle Hodge is an Assistant Professor of Communication at CU Boulder, where she specializes in African American Studies, critical race theory, and critical hip hop studies. As an award-winning scholar-teacher, Dr. Hodge's work is a profound exploration of how racism and its intersecting oppressions are embedded in our everyday talk, communicative practices, institutions, and overall society. 

Dr. Hodge is a 2024-2025 Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) Faculty Fellow and a 2024-2025 Andrew W. Mellon Civic Engagement and Voting Rights Teacher Scholar. In 2023, she was named the Inaugural Lecture Series Speaker for The Center for African and African American Studies. 

In 2021, Dr. Hodge delivered a Juneteenth Keynote titled "Liberatory Love and Freedom: Radical Reenvisionings” for the University of Colorado Four-Campus System. This year’s address builds on that foundation and introduces humanizing imagination as a transformative approach to shared equity leadership. Dr. Hodge presents humanizing imagination as a framework that merges humanizing equity with radical imagination, offering sociopolitical possibilities for achieving equity.

Participants at the Juneteenth Address were invited to join a dialogues mixer the following day.  

What is a Dialogue Mixer?

CU Dialogues understands dialogue mixer as a semi-structured interactive dialogue session designed to encourage participants to engage in meaningful conversations with a variety of people in a short amount of time. The goal of a dialogue mixer is to facilitate the exchange of diverse perspectives, promote radical listening, and foster a sense of community.

Thank you to our event sponsors for both events:

The Center for African and African American Studies; Finance and Business Strategy 
The Office of Information Technology
The College of Media, Communication and Information
The Department of Communication
The School of Education
The College of Arts and Sciences’ Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion;
The Center for Teaching and Learning
Strategic Relations and Communications
 CU Engage

Participants were asked, what was the most impactful part of Dr. Danielle Hodge’s Juneteenth address for you? 

"The idea that we all have the agency and ability and obligation to engage in collective imagination and action to shift our communities beyond anti-blackness."

 "Dr. Hodge's address was very meaningful for me. I was impacted by Dr. Hodge's invitation to imagine as a revolutionary act. Her description and imagery of Black joy was beautiful, powerful, and moving."

"The presentation and delivery was top notch incredible. I loved how she used narrative stories to bring the viewers in and candor that really grounded the address and made it thought provoking and inspiring."

People talking in diads at dialogue mixer
people standing and talking
Dialogues Staff