Promoting Religious Pluralism and Academic Freedom at the University of Arkansas

Difficult Dialogues is a two-year initiative funded by the Ford Foundation and the University of Arkansas designed to cultivate dialogues about diversity among students and members of the community by bringing in speakers, offering workshops, and holding classroom discussions and community outreach events. The focus will be religious pluralism and civil society and tolerance and intolerance. Faculty in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences wrote the proposal that won a planning grant from the foundation.

Northwest Arkansas has grown into a metropolis of nearly 400,000, adding valuable cultural diversity to the region and to the University of Arkansas. With this growth, and a campus inclusive of international and out-of-state students, comes an increase in Muslim, Catholic, Jewish, and other religious groups. As a primarily Protestant community, students will be exposed to people of other religious or non-religious faiths, beliefs, and practices and, for some, this is the first time such exposure has occurred. Discussing one’s own beliefs can be difficult in itself and communicating with others about their beliefs can be uncomfortable as well. It is important to learn how to talk with each other about such issues in a way which promotes understanding and decreases potential anger. The Difficult Dialogues program has the goal of promoting the respect and understanding of differing personal beliefs.

For more information on speakers and community outreach events, please contact Dawn Fisher in the Dean’s office at Fulbright College at 575-4804. For more information on workshops and classroom discussions, please contact the University Ombuds Office at 575-4831.