Humanities Institute Receives Ford Foundation Grant to Fund Difficult Dialogues Seminars for Undergraduates

The Ford Foundation recently granted the Humanities Institute $100,000 as part of the foundation’s nationwide Difficult Dialogues Initiative. This funding allows UT-Austin to continue and extend a set of undergraduate seminars on cultural pluralism and academic freedom that were initially developed in 2006 under a first round of Ford Foundation funding. In partnership with UT-Austin’s new School of Undergraduate Studies, HI will use the funds to develop additional seminars as well as new public programming on topics related to cultural pluralism and academic freedom. HI Associate Director Pauline Strong, who has been involved with Difficult Dialogues at UT since its inception, is leading this initiative, together with a team of faculty from the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Law.

Difficult Dialogues courses are part of the First-Year Signature Course program, which offers interdisciplinary courses designed to introduce entering students to the intellectual and artistic riches of the university. Difficult Dialogues seminars are distinctive in their focus on teaching students the principles of academic freedom and the skills they need to participate in constructive dialogue about controversial and potentially divisive issues.

To date courses have been offered on Church and State, taught by H.W. Perry, Associate Professor of Government; Islam in America, taught by Denise Spellberg, Associate Professor of History; Race and Policy, taught by Robert Hummer, Professor of Sociology; and Religion and Sexuality, taught by Ann Cvetkovich, Professor of English. (Download the syllabi.)

The Humanities Institute and the program’s steering committee are working to develop additional courses on topics that fall within two overarching themes: Religious Pluralism and Pluralism and Social Policy. In addition, beginning in Spring 2009 the Humanities Institute will offer a series of Public Dialogues on Academic Freedom and Cultural Pluralism featuring visiting scholars as well as campus and community leaders.

Robert M. O’Neil—the former president of the University of Virginia and Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression—reported in the July- August 2006 issue of Academe Online that the Ford Foundation instituted the Difficult Dialogues Initiative in response to “reports of growing intolerance and efforts to curb academic freedom on U.S. campuses.”

In participating in this initiative UT-Austin is part of a diverse group of 27 institutions across the country that were selected by the Ford Foundation from a pool of nearly seven hundred applicants. Other large research universities participating in the initiative include Arizona State University, Emory University, the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, the University of Missouri, the University of North Carolina, and Yale University. UT-Austin is unique, however, in offering Difficult Dialogues courses as part of the required undergraduate curriculum.

Participating in the Difficult Dialogues Initiative offers the Humanities Institute the opportunity to extend its interdisciplinary programming to undergraduates, while expanding its public programming to include a focus on academic freedom and cultural pluralism Participating faculty and students have been enthusiastic about the program, and the Humanities Institute is equally enthusiastic about adding this program to our array of interdisciplinary and campus/community dialogues.

For more information, contact HI Associate Director Pauline Strong at (512) 232-6093.