Challenge, Connection, Collaboration: Identity, Religion, Diversity, and Interfaith Cooperation

This webinar was held in collaboration between AAC&U and Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC).

IFYC and AAC&U share a belief that higher education has a special role to play in preparing students to respond to the growing religious diversity in the United States and the resulting polarization that has emerged in its wake. When this webinar was held, we were a nation increasingly divided along lines of politics, class, race, geography, and religion. Fortunately, as discussed in the webinar, everyone could choose how to respond to both the diversity itself and the polarization. Both IFYC and AAC&U believe in preparing students to respond to this diversity in ways that build bridges between people and communities to create healthy civil societies.

Though religious identity and diversity are increasingly important on the national and global stage, interfaith cooperation and engaging religious diversity remain underdeveloped as institutional priorities on many college campuses. This increasing religious diversity has implications for your campuses specifically and higher education broadly in several ways. With an increase in incidents centered around interfaith misunderstanding on campuses and in communities, several institutions are reporting a need for student, faculty, and staff preparation for interfaith engagement. This webinar addressed the rationale, value, and impact of engaging religious diversity and facilitating cooperation on campuses from various institutional perspectives.