Projects / Ohio University,
Program in Difficult Discussions of Race and Religion
PI: Steve Hays, Associate Professor.
Location: Department of Classics and World Religions, in close cooperation with the Department of African American Studies and University College.
Ohio University will develop a three-prong strategy to enhance student learning and discussions about race and religion. First, it will institute a three-day camp in August to show incoming freshmen that disciplined intellectual inquiry and collaborative problem solving can help transcend fractious partisan debates. Drawing on archives of recent public discourse to illustrate how not to conduct difficult dialogues, the camp will help students consider the state of contemporary public discourse and discover that better kinds of discourse are possible. Second, building on the camp experience, the project will create diverse residential learning communities in which students can practice these modes of discussion throughout the year. Finally, the university will develop three new permanent courses specifically designed to help students learn intellectual skills that help make difficult dialogues enlightening and productive of genuine mutual respect. These three courses will show students that the possibilities of productive discourse are greatly extended when the participants adopt the Socratic attitude and engage in collaborative inquiry. The courses are designed to escalate in intellectual complexity. Activities are focused on freshmen in order to encourage students to think seriously from the start about the challenges posed by diversity of experience and belief.