Michal Friedman moderates a discussion with Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker in November 2023.
CMU’s Deeper Conversations Initiative Aims To Build Bridges of Connection and Understanding
Carnegie Mellon University has launched Deeper Conversations, a university-wide initiative aimed at bringing together new and existing opportunities to explore divergent viewpoints and take a broader view on some of today’s most challenging issues.
In his community message announcing the initiative, President Farnam Jahanian noted, “I strongly believe that facilitating civil discourse and modeling its power to unify, educate and build bridges is precisely the role that higher education can and should play in a society increasingly marked by division.”
An anchor effort of Deeper Conversations is an academic series from CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. The series will aim to illuminate the historical, political, cultural and narrative background of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and to study the current Israel-Hamas war from multiple perspectives over the course of the spring semester.
“As an educational institution, our role is not to advocate for one side of any controversial issue; it is to educate our students and community about the issue and provide a forum in which we can discuss the issue safely and rationally,” said Richard Scheines, the Bess Family Dean of the Dietrich College.