Projects / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Project Title: Institutionalizing Difficult Dialogues: Freedom of Conscience in the Public University PIs: William L. Andrews, Senior Associate Dean, Humanities and Fine Arts, College of Arts and Sciences and E. Maynard Adams Professor of English; Judith Welch Wegner, Professor of Law and Chair of the Faculty. Location: College of Arts and Sciences.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of 27 institutions of higher education implementing large scale projects as part of the Difficult Dialogues Initiative, a grant program of the Ford Foundation in partnership with the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.
About the Difficult Dialogues Initiative at UNC-Chapel Hill
UNC-Chapel Hill is a highly selective public university with a blend of intellectual achievement and spiritual commitment among many of its students, making Carolina an ideal “laboratory” to investigate the sources and symptoms of what many think are inevitable conflicts between religious faith and free inquiry. In the summer of 2002, a national controversy erupted over the university’s decision to assign Approaching the Qur’an to its incoming first-year class as part of a required summer reading program. A valuable exchange ensued, but it did not lead to a sustained dialogue that focused on the relationship between academic freedom and religious conviction. UNC-Chapel Hill’s proposal will move from authorizing the principle of diversity to the more difficult task of institutionalizing the practice of dialogue on the campus. For additional details on the project background, please read A View from Chapel Hill.
In the project’s first year, the highly-regarded National Issues Forum Network has partnered with UNC-CH to conduct focus groups and gather baseline data on campus and in the larger community; frame the campus’s key issues; coordinate identification of options for interventions; conduct workshops and other hands-on opportunities for faculty and students to refine their skills in leading difficult dialogues; develop moderator and discussion guides, facilitation techniques, and other materials; and test and refine activities and materials as needed to meet program objectives.
Project Leadership: A Campus-wide Partnership
Principal Investigators
* Co-principal Investigator William L. Andrews, Senior Associate Dean, Humanities and Fine Arts, College of Arts and
Sciences and E. Maynard Adams Professor of English
* Co-principal Investigator Judith Welch Wegner, Professor of Law
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee is comprised of UNC-Chapel Hill faculty and staff representing key components of the University. In addition to Co-Principal Investigators William Andrews and Judith Welch Wegner, other members of the Steering Committee are:
* Julia Wood, Associate Director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, representing faculty continuing education;
* Jay Smith, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curricula and Professor of History in the College of Arts and Sciences,
representing curricular renovation;
* Virginia Carson, Director of the Campus Y, representing extra-curricular student life; and
* Ed Neal, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, representing faculty development and program evaluation.
Project Staff
* Project Director Danielle Doughman, or (919) 962-4029
* Graduate Research Assistant Brandi Denison,
Get Involved
For more information, or to participate in a campus dialogue or leadership opportunities, please contact Difficult Dialogues Initiative Project Director Danielle Doughman at or (919) 962-4029.