In a show of solidarity, nine Boston area universities and colleges are collaborating on a series of webinars, starting Monday, January 29, featuring their expert faculty talking about civility, respect, and disinformation, at a time when antisemitism and Islamophobia are roiling higher education campuses.
The participating institutions, along with Boston University, are Northeastern, Harvard, Brandeis, Wellesley College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston College, and Tufts. The series, which was initiated by the participating institutions’ presidents, with an organizing committee put together by their provosts, is being called: “Dialogue and Action in an Age of Divides: A Panel Series Organized by Nine Massachusetts Universities.”
“It’s a really nice opportunity to have hard conversations, rather than fewer conversations,” says Jeremy Menchik, an associate professor of international relations at BU’s Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies and director of BU’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs. Menchik is serving as BU’s representative on the panel series. “We hope to have frank, nuanced, and productive conversations about antisemitism and Islamophobia,” he says, “and we’re hopeful for cascading effects about Israel and Palestine and activism on campuses today, and how it’s changed.”
