Who Gets to Be Neutral? Culture, Credibility, and the Mediator’s Seat

Who Gets to Be Neutral? Culture, Credibility, and the Mediator’s Seat

Classical mediation asks the neutral third party to stand equidistant from both sides. But what happens when the parties themselves aren’t standing on equal ground? In this conversation, we ask whether neutrality is always the right goal, or whether it can quietly preserve the very imbalances mediation claims to address. Join NECR lecturer Dr. Dianne Williams and special guest Dr. Faith Speaks for a conversation that moves past “how do I stay neutral?” toward the harder question: what is a mediator actually accountable to?

Drawing on mediation and restorative-practice frameworks alongside Dr. Speaks’ background in counseling psychology and diversity-and inclusion-facilitation, this session explores how personal worldviews can shape who gets read as credible in a room, how a facilitator’s own background is never a blank slate, and how cultural awareness operates beneath the surface of every dispute. Rather than a single-discipline take, this is a genuinely multidisciplinary hour—psychology and conflict resolution in direct conversation—designed to give prospective students a real sense of the analytical range the NECR program cultivates.

Speakers:
Dr. Dianne Williams, Lecturer, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution; International Mediator and Restorative Practitioner (moderator)
Dr. Faith Speaks, Counseling Psychologist, Personal and Organizational Development Consultant
Dr. Faith Speaks is a counselor psychologist, researcher, therapist, educator, civil and human rights organizer, and community development professional whose commitment to human dignity, justice, education, and social change began during her youth growing up in Brooklyn and Long Island, New York.

For questions about this event, please contact Kjerstin Pugh, kep2137@columbia.edu.