Fostering Curiosity and Respect in Education

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This chapter explores the challenges faced by professors in cultivating an environment where students can critically engage with diverse views, emphasizing the importance of respect and cooperation in interfaith and political discussions. It discusses the contrast between religious and political dialogues, the significance of curiosity, empathy, and understanding differing perspectives, and the societal implications of lacking curiosity towards opposing viewpoints within elite education institutions.

Yascha Mounk and Eboo Patel discuss how interfaith work can serve as a model for engaging productively across differences.

Eboo Patel is the founder of Interfaith America and the author of We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy. Patel also served as an advisor on faith to President Barack Obama.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Eboo Patel discuss how the dominant diversity paradigm in many institutions divides individuals into oppressors and oppressed; how universities can draw from the intellectual tradition of pluralism to encourage mutual respect and cooperation; and how university leaders can alleviate the deeply polarized atmosphere that prevails at many institutions around the country.

This conversation is part of a new Persuasion series on the Future of Universities. Universities are in crisis—losing public support, shaken by internal divisions, facing angry donors and alumni, and increasingly straying from their core mission of intellectual curiosity and open inquiry. Persuasion's new series about the future of universities, made possible by the generous support of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, will consist of a collection of longform essays and podcast interviews aimed at helping higher education tackle this crisis.

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clari t y .

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Podcast production by Jack Shields, and Brendan Ruberry

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