The Center for Critical Democracy Studies is pleased to invite you to participate in a storytelling workshop this autumn: In Your Shoes (IYS). The program was developed by the theatre-maker and educator Derek Goldman and is now anchored in the In Your Shoes Research and Practice Center at Georgetown University, which he co-directs with Rachel Gartner. Joining and helping to lead this workshop will be Professor Daniel Brumberg, former Co-Director of GU's Democracy and Governance MA program, one of IYS's original co-creators and a continuing mentor to it.
IYS is an exercise in "performing one another." Developed over more than a decade, it combines theatrical technique with deep listening. Participants receive a single prompt, often "home," pair up, and tell one another a personal story drawn from it. Each partner transcribes the other's story in their own words, then performs it back to the group, stepping into the storyteller's shoes. The aim is not performance for its own sake, but empathy: to feel heard, to inhabit another's perspective, and to notice connections that a room of near-strangers rarely makes visible. IYS has run workshops from Bangladesh to Scotland to divided communities across the United States and received Georgetown's Provost's Innovation in Teaching Award. It has been covered by PBS NewsHour and the Washington Post. One participant said: "Every time I engage with the In Your Shoes process, I feel something shift inside of me."
No acting or performance experience is required: only an open heart, a willingness to be a little vulnerable, curiosity, and a sense of adventure.
AUP session: Friday, 2 October 2026, 10:00–13:00 (Room Q-609).
All students, faculty, and staff are welcome to apply.
Student applications: Please send brief expression of interest and CV to CCDS [at] aup.edu (CCDS[at]aup[dot]edu) before September 18.
Faculty & staff applications: Please contact us at CCDS [at] aup.edu (CCDS[at]aup[dot]edu) before September 18.
