Projects / Northwestern University,
Negotiating Difference and Memory
PI: Dilip Gaonkar, Associate Professor.
Location: School of Communication, Communication Studies, Center for Global Culture and Communication, in partnership with the Program in Rhetoric and Public Culture.
Northwestern University’s project is dedicated to changing what it calls a culture of indifference, a sophisticated student body adept at dodging issues of difference in order to focus on doing well academically, in the direction of a more robust civility that engages the problems that define and test pluralism. Northwestern will assemble a select group of faculty members from a wide range of departments and academic units to teach a series of twelve seminars directed primarily at incoming freshmen. Some seminars will be held in the evening within the residential colleges to facilitate the formation of learning communities. The general theme of these seminars and forums will be Negotiating Difference and Memory. They will focus on both multicultural issues and challenges in the United States as well as conflicts and controversies that arise in other geographical areas over religious, ethno-racial and cultural differences. Particular attention will be paid to the question of memory because most of the controversies and conflicts have historical roots. In addition, Northwestern will organize public forums designed to engage the larger university community on similar issues.
See the project's site here.