The Provost's Office has created Dialogue Across Difference to help students, faculty, and staff engage in productive discussions of complicated issues with a shared commitment to mutual understanding and respect.
President Minouche Shafik is hosting Listening Forums throughout the academic year to expand the opportunities for students to communicate directly with academic and senior administrative leaders about the issues that affect them on campus.
Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, and Columbia General Studies have created this initiative to focus on the responsibilities of a shared community—with the core values of belonging, respect, and service at its center.
The School for International and Public Affairs has launched the Institute for Global Politics’ Across the Aisle series, sponsored by Knight Foundation, which features discussions between prominent domestic and global leaders with opposing viewpoints.
Campus Conversations is a University Life program that leads sessions to foster dialogue across difference among students through this dialogue-based initiative in order to build community and connections through real and deep conversations.
Mark Your Calendar
Community Discussion: Racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia
The War in Gaza: Constructive Campus Conversations | Livestream
Navigating HOT Moments: Before, During, & After Class (for Faculty)
The Unity Concert, Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King
Choosing Community: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of MLK
Having Difficult Conversations
What’s Next for the Middle East?
Talking Across Difference and Difficulty
Awakening Our Democracy: What’s At Stake In These Polarized Times
Generative AI, Free Speech, & Public Discourse
DxD: Lessons from Bridging the American Divides
Art in the Time of Crisis: Still Rising
Employing Empathetic Objectivity in the Classroom
Speak Now: Claudia Rankine
DxD: The Quagmire of Animal Foods for Human and Planetary Health
AI Training for Facilitating Challenging Classroom Conversations
Communication Challenges in a Post-truth Era
Past Events
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Slide 1: On Feb. 15, as part of the Dialogue Across Difference initiative, University Life and the Journalism School cohosted a panel that explored how the often binary conversations around current events inform our understanding of democracy, the elements that prevent us from coming together for civil discourse, and where we go from here. You can stream the whole event on University Life's YouTube channel.
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Slide 2: On November 30, leaders from Columbia and Princeton joined together to share their strategies and recommendations for discussing complex, charged topics like the War in Gaza within academic settings.
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Slide 3: On January 26, Beth Fisher-Yoshida, PhD, the program director of the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program in the School of Professional Studies, led a professional development workshop for faculty to enhance their skills in navigating the current crisis and gain a deeper understanding of broader campus climate dynamics as part of the Dialogue Across Difference initiative.
