From Upper Left: In Your Shoes celebrates the launches of its Research & Practice Center with an expansive workshop at the Embassy of Sweden; GU alum Myiah Smith performs with Prof. Ricardo Ortiz at Georgetown Global Dialogues; Lab Creative Core Members Sophia Skiles and Todd London perform IYS at The Gathering 2024; A Public Workshop from The Lab’s Art of Care Initiative, in which IYS is a centerpiece.
In Your Shoes™ (IYS) is a signature program of Georgetown University’s Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics that combines techniques rooted in theatrical performance with the art of deep listening to foster empathy, curiosity, and connection — even across deep divides.
Open and accessible to all, IYS brings together people from diverse backgrounds in facilitated group experiences and paired conversations where they listen closely, transcribe, and speak one another’s exact words. The process invites participants to feel profoundly heard while stepping into another’s perspective — deepening self-awareness, encouraging humility and courage, and building communities of trust and belonging. At its heart, IYS is about excavating the rich threads of connection that already exist among us in any communal, human setting — connections that so often go unnoticed.
“What’s unique about In Your Shoes is that it taps into the emotional, embodied, and spiritual domains of learning. The depth it reaches allows all of us to break down invisible walls, be at ease, and bring care to one another.”
Zhuqing Ding, Researcher & Learning Experience Designer, Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship
The program was created and developed by acclaimed international theater-maker and educator Derek Goldman and has grown through more than a decade of workshops and collaborations in contexts as varied as Bangladesh, China, Russia, Scotland, and Sudan, as well as polarized communities throughout the United States. IYS has evolved from an innovative classroom practice into a globally recognized model anchored in Georgetown’s In Your Shoes™ Research & Practice Center. Sustained by a wide and growing network of trained facilitators — including faculty from a wide range of disciplines, care workers, clergy, students, and civic leaders — the program is now embraced in fields ranging from higher education and healthcare to diplomacy, democracy studies and peace-building, interfaith dialogue, athletics, and business.
“Prof. Goldman and his team have pioneered a groundbreaking and inclusive approach to enable individuals and groups to establish deep and meaningful connections and dialogue across divides.”
Oliver Johnson, Executive Director, GU’s Global Health Institute
In Your Shoes™ has reached thousands worldwide and has been recognized with Georgetown’s Provost’s Innovation in Teaching Award, as well as in features by PBS News Hour and The Washington Post.
At a time of fracture and mistrust, IYS offers a human-centered, adaptable model for renewing civil discourse, strengthening pluralism, and equipping individuals and institutions to practice empathy, humility, and trust. IYS enables participants to experience profound personal transformation while also developing lifelong skills that build trust, strengthen our capacity for dialogue, and deepen our understanding of ourselves and our shared humanity.
“Every time I engage with the In Your Shoes process, I feel something shift inside of me. Our internal systems seem to know when we are listening deeply and being truly heard, witnessed, and honored. Once you experience this, you inevitably want more, which I think influences the way we show up in the world.”
Gillian Huebner, Executive Director, Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues
Contact us at inyourshoes@georgetown.edu to explore how a collaboration with In Your Shoes™ might support your community, organization, or campus.
In Your Shoes™ is offered in flexible formats: single-session workshops, two-session intensives, and longer-term residencies with groups of all kinds. Modules can be adapted for universities, community organizations, healthcare, interfaith groups, and more.
Ways to participate:
- Sign up as Individual
- Arrange a Workshop
- Request Consulation
Next Session:
Friday, November 21, 2025, 2–4 p.m. EDT RSVP
Location: Ecumenical Chapel, Isaac Hawkins Hall, Georgetown University
Engage in facilitated group activities and pair conversations to get to know one another, enjoy each other’s company, and build trust.
2026 Dates Coming Soon!
“We can talk theoretically about empathy, but to experience it is a whole other thing. In participating in In Your Shoes, it’s like a third perspective emerged for me as I started to notice what I myself was experiencing as I shared my partner’s narrative. Now that is empathy.”
Father Gregory Schenden SJ, Director for Catholic Life, Georgetown University
Media Gallery
Georgetown University
- Multi-Year Initiative addressing polarization between Georgetown and Patrick Henry College (evangelical school in Virginia), GU’s Democracy & Governance Studies Program and Government Department. Recipient of “Transforming the Core Curriculum Initiative” grant, and support from Baker Trust for Leadership. Creation of a course on both campuses “Dialogue and Difference: Performing One Another.” Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching.
- Multi-Year Project: Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues, Semester-Long In Your Shoes intensive
- Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs
- Campus Mission and Ministry – Interfaith Dialogue
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Center for Social Justice
- Center for the Study of Slavery & Its Legacies
- CNDLS – Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship
- Collaborative for Global Children’s Issues
- Core Pathways Program on Climate Change
See more here
- Department of Performing Arts
- The Doyle Engaging Difference Program
- Earth Commons Institute for Environment & Sustainability
- ESCAPE – First year transition and reflection program
- Georgetown Athletics
- Georgetown Dialogue Initiative
- Georgetown Global Dialogues
- Georgetown Humanities Initiative
- Georgetown Law Center
- Georgetown University Qatar
- (multiple initiatives including Women Changemakers Program;
- Global Convening on Water; Black Literary Festival)
- Global Health Institute
- Global Mental Health & Well-Being Institute
- Human Rights Institute (Law Center)
- Kennedy Institute for Bioethics
- Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice
- LGBTQ Resource Center
- Lombardi Cancer Center
- Master’s in Conflict Resolution
- McCourt School of Public Policy
- McDonough School of Business
- Medical Humanities Initiative
- MedStar Health
- Parents Circle Families Forum, “Listening from the Heart,” Georgetown Student Cohort
- The Power of Dialogue: De-constructing the Urban/ Rural Divide, with Radford University
- Red House – Center for Educational Transformation
- School of Continuing Studies
- School of Foreign Service
- School of Medicine
- School of Nursing
- Office of Student Affairs
- Teaching, Learning & Innovation Summer Institute
- Theater & Performance Studies Program
Other Select Venues, Hosts & Partners
- Al-Buggaa Festival, Khartoum, Sudan
- American University
- Andy’s Playhouse,
- Intergenerational Program Beyond Borders International Festival, Edinburgh
- Cambodian Living Arts Cox’s Bazar,
- Bangadesh Columbia University
- Duke University
- Edinburgh International Festival
- Embassy of Poland
- Embassy of Sweden
- George Washington University
- Gogol Center, Moscow
- Howard University
See more here
- Department of Performing Arts
- The Doyle Engaging Difference Program
- Earth Commons Institute for Environment & Sustainability
- ESCAPE – First year transition and reflection program
- Georgetown Athletics
- Georgetown Dialogue Initiative
- Georgetown Global Dialogues
- Georgetown Humanities Initiative
- Georgetown Law Center
- Georgetown University Qatar
- (multiple initiatives including Women Changemakers Program;
- Global Convening on Water; Black Literary Festival)
- Global Health Institute
- Global Mental Health & Well-Being Institute
- Human Rights Institute (Law Center)
- Kennedy Institute for Bioethics
- Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice
- LGBTQ Resource Center
- Lombardi Cancer Center
- Master’s in Conflict Resolution
- McCourt School of Public Policy
- McDonough School of Business
- Medical Humanities Initiative
- MedStar Health
- Parents Circle Families Forum, “Listening from the Heart,” Georgetown Student Cohort
- The Power of Dialogue: De-constructing the Urban/ Rural Divide, with Radford University
- Red House – Center for Educational Transformation
- School of Continuing Studies
- School of Foreign Service
- School of Medicine
- School of Nursing
- Office of Student Affairs
- Teaching, Learning & Innovation Summer Institute
- Theater & Performance Studies Program
Facilitators
In addition to the core Lab team members, including Derek Goldman (Lab Artistic & Executive Director and In Your Shoes Creator); Rachel Gartner (Co-director, In Your Shoes Research and Practice Center), Emma Jaster, Ijeoma Njiaka, Cynthia Schneider, Mélisande Short-Colomb, and Ersian François, our evolving list of IYS facilitators includes:
In Your Shoes™curricular efforts are supported by and run in collaboration with the Doyle Engaging Difference Program.
The In Your Shoes™ Research and Practice Center is made possible in part through the generous support of Andrew R. Ammerman.
