Dr. Ellen Aiken

Dr. Ellen Aiken is Co-Director of the CU Dialogues Program.  She is also a core faculty member in the Sewall Residential Academic Program, where she teaches interdisciplinary courses in American History with an emphasis on immigration, cross-cultural interaction and the American West.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in American History.  Her dissertation research examined how immigrant groups in the company towns of southern Wyoming negotiated cross-cultural differences between the 1890s and the 1920s.  Her current work focuses on the use of dialogue to build understanding across cultural differences in community settings.  She incorporates dialogic pedagogy, civic engagement and community-based learning into her own teaching.  In 2010, she received the Serving Communities Award from CU’s Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement.  When she’s not working, she loves hiking, climbing peaks and taking road trips all over the American West.