Projects / Trinity University,
Promoting Pluralism and Academic Freedom on Campus
PI: Diane Smith, Associate Vice-President for Budget and Research, Professor, Department of Geosciences.
Location: Office of Academic Affairs.
The goal of this project is to initiate and institutionalize sustained discussion among faculty, students and staff of compelling, controversial topics. The project builds on well-established interdisciplinary major and minor programs. Trinity University is in the process of implementing a revised curriculum, which includes a new required senior capstone experience. Two early summer workshops will lay foundations for the dialogues by educating a team of faculty, students and staff, who will lead the activities associated with each dialogue. There will be four dialogues, one each semester during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years, to promote genuine engagement, mutually respectful listening, and reasoned discussion on the topics of Culture and Civic Status, Religious Particularism, Compulsory Heterosexuality, and Islamophobia. Each dialogue program will include two keynote speaker or artists, two additional events such as relevant films, plays, readings or exhibits; panels and/or group discussions to coincide with these four events; and a one credit-hour course. As an outcome of the project, Trinity expects to create three kinds of new courses: interdepartmental first-year seminars, senior capstone experiences or interdisciplinary seminars, and departmental courses. Furthermore, by sponsoring and publicizing a new set of lectures and activities and by incorporating individuals with more diverse perspectives and backgrounds into the established lecture series, the project will legitimize the discussion of controversial issues and create a hospitable intellectual and cultural space for difference in the community.
See the project's site here.