Since 2019, The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project has been a highly collaborative community-engaged exploration of the educational, psychological and cultural impact of LGBTQ+ intergenerational dialogues on younger and older adults. While decades of research has documented the challenges that LGBTQ+ individuals face across the lifespan, the project has built on the strengths and assets of LGBTQ+ individuals. The project has engaged cohorts of Chicago-area younger and older adults in 16 three-hour dialogues, each over the course of 9 months. Dialogues have engaged themes, including but not limited to, LGBTQ+ politics and art, experiences with HIV/AIDS, gender beyond the binary, and activism. To date, over 160 people have participated in the project.

We will facilitate a series of collaborative intergenerational research symposia that will bring alumni from the first six years of the project into the data analysis, interpretation, and writing aspects of the research process. Data collected throughout this mixed method study includes a blend of questionnaires, audio recordings of each dialogue, including small group breakouts, ethnographic field notes, and midpoint and endpoint interviews. Analysis of our voluminous body of data seeks to address the question: How can LGBTQ+ intergenerational dialogues counter legacies of epistemic injustice to improve the psychosocial, cultural, and educational well-being of LGBTQ+ people? The goal of these symposia is to work on writing a collaboratively informed book that bridges the gap between researchers and research subjects.