Difficult Dialogues Initiative

Project Title: Imagining the Future: Dissent, Dialogue and the Freedom to Inquire PI: Manuel N. Gómez, Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs. Location: Office of the Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs.

Building on continuing attempts to protect academic freedom, this project will use techniques drawn from peace-building and respect initiatives already under way to foster productive dialogue on campus. The project will develop and launch three new courses designed to educate students about contemporary issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, traditions of religious conflict and religious tolerance, and peace building. The first course, Religious Diversity and Conflict, jointly developed by faculty in religious studies and in conflict resolution, will be approved for one or more requirements that all undergraduate students must fulfill. The second will be a two-quarter pilot seminar entitled Imagining the Future. The third course, for upper-division students, will be a series of seminars on the Politics and Ethics of Difference. In addition to these courses, the university will develop a series of teaching seminars to increase the ability of faculty and graduate teaching assistants to facilitate dialogue in existing courses that deal with sensitive topics. Workshops will offer participation in the conflict resolution process, and experts will promote dialogue both on and off campus. Finally, the project includes a year-long series of lectures and other public events designed to heighten awareness of religious and ethnic conflict, peace-building techniques, and successful collaborations that have grown out of situations once dominated by conflict.

See the project's site here.