Difficult Dialogues: Promoting Pluralism and Academic Freedom on Campus
Difficult Dialogues is a program designed to promote academic freedom and religious, cultural, and political pluralism on college and university campuses in the United States. Currently, 43 institutions are implementing projects that address these issues. While all projects seek to prepare students to constructively engage with difficult and sensitive topics, the projects address a wide range of substantive areas. These include topics such as: fundamentalism and secularism, racial and ethnic relations, the Middle East conflict, religion and the university, sexual orientation, and academic freedom.
In addition to other projects, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression coordinates activities among participating institutions and maintains this site.The Center is a not-for-profit organization located in Charlottesville, Virginia.
An Advisory Committee comprised of senior scholars reviews the Center’s programming for Difficult Dialogues and makes recommendations about future activities. Advisory Committee members will also participate in the regional conferences planned for the 2006-2007 academic year.
Background:
The Ford Foundation, with input from leaders in higher education, launched the Difficult Dialogues Initiative in the spring of 2005. As part of this effort, a statement about the importance of protecting academic freedom was mailed to colleges and universities across the country. In addition to Susan V. Berresford, President of the Ford Foundation, many prominent college and university presidents co-signed the letter, including our own director, Robert M. O’Neil, Former President of the University of Virginia.
Participating projects were selected through a competition in which over 675 colleges and universities applied for support. Through a multi-stage process 27 projects were selected for grants of $100,000 each with an additional 16 institutions receiving stipends to participate in the initiative. Projects will run for a two year period from 2006 until 2008.
We wish to thank the Ford Foundation for its generous support. Please note that the opinions and views expressed on this site do not necessarily represent those of the Ford Foundation.