A series of 10-week and 6-week courses offered each year with the aim of developing  better community understanding of the dynamics of a rapidly globalising world and Australia's place in it. 

Each year the course attracted between 35 and 70 participants, most of them working in education, government, the professions, media,  and religious and community organisations, as well as a number of students.

The Centre for Dialogue was established by La Trobe University in September 2005 and inaugurated on 15 August 2006, at the National Gallery of Victoria, with the strong support of the Victorian Government. At the opening, attended by more than 700 people, Judge Christopher Weeramantry, former Vice-President of the International Court of Justice, delivered the inaugural Annual Lecture.

A 6-week course offered by the School of Sociology, Politics and Anthropology at La Trobe University.

This was the sevent in a series of courses focusing on the politics, economy, culture and foreign policies of Asian coutnries, with particular emphasis on India, China, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Other teaching staff included: Prof Robin Jeffrey, Prof John Fitzgerald, Prof David G. Marr, Dr Herb Feith and Dr Meg Gurry.

The Conference, convened by Joseph Camilleri, examined the role of the state and its relationship to nation and community on the one and to the changing international environment on the other. The Conference featured presentations by some thirty leading international and Australian scholars, with Professor R. B. J. Walker as the keynote speaker.

For further details of the conference see below