In the late 1990s a group of us in the Equality Studies Centre in UCD set out to write a book that would not only be academically insightful and challenging (and interdisciplinary) but also accessible to activists and educationalists working in the fields of equality, global justice and human rights. We were keenly aware of how colonial the relationship can be between those who have ‘expert’ knowledge of inequality or injustice writing within the academy, and those who have daily ‘experiential knowledge’ of injustice in community or work contexts outside of it. We had extensive dialogues not only with academics but also with activists while writing Equality, From theory to Action (including a 300 strong conference where we presented drafts of our papers for critique to activists and academics in 2000). The unique interdisciplinary framework that we developed for understanding equality and inequality will be presented at the seminar. I will also speak about how undertaking research in a dialogical and emancipatory way alters the paradigms and models we have within established disciplines; it presents us with several challenges to our ways of doing research in the University.