The Dialogue Innovation Fund is a new university-wide grant program that will support faculty endeavors to teach, model and incorporate into the classroom and campus life the values and norms of dialogue across difference.
There is widespread concern that society is increasingly defined by polarization, echo chambers, and a decay in citizens’ ability to listen to and engage with individuals from different backgrounds, perspectives and viewpoints.
And there is no reason to believe these trends end at the edges of campus. A study of Johns Hopkins undergraduates led by Andrew Perrin, chair of the KSAS Department of Sociology and SNF Agora Professor of Sociology, found that many students report they feel unable to express their opinions freely in class for fear of reprisals from peers; many also demonstrate a high willingness to use repressive techniques to silence opinions with which they disagree. The study advised that students would be well-served by more “curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students to talk, listen, debate, and revise across disagreement”, and that “faculty may need to better intentionally design their classroom environments to have students from all walks of life and majors see the value and learn the skills of expression and productive conversations, regardless of background or ideology.”
Universities at their core should be seedbeds of pluralism. Openness to difference and intellectual inquiry are embedded in our norm of academic freedom and our mission of education and discovery. This fund will seek to support innovative programs and initiatives across our schools and campuses that model the values of engagement across difference, and model for students – and society more broadly – the habits and virtues of reasoned and constructive discourse.
Illustrative examples of projects that would come within this fund include curricular and co-curricular opportunities:
Proposal submission deadline: December 2, 2024
Anticipated start date for award: January 6, 2025
Proposals can seek a total amount of as much as $25,000 with an award term of up to one year. Funds can be used for salary with fringe, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows or technicians, equipment, travel, convenings and other engagements.
Applications will consist of four elements:
Awardees will be asked to:
Proposals and questions about the program should be directed to the Provost Office at [email protected].
Office of the Provost
265 Garland Hall
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Phone: (410) 516-8070
Fax: (410) 516-8035
[email protected]