Higher Education Archives - Interfaith America

From August 2 to 4, Interfaith America will host the 2024 Interfaith Leadership Summit, the nation’s premier interfaith gathering for students and educators.

At this event, 500 higher education leaders will convene to build skills, forge connections, and bridge deep divides in pursuit of pluralism.

Over the three-day event, attendees will hear from leading voices in pluralism whose work in higher education, faith communities, and civic organizations model interfaith leadership.

Editor’s note: The following conversations have been edited for clarity and length.

Meet the Interfaith Leadership Summit panelists:

Maria Dixon-Hall

Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Advisor to the President on Cultural Intelligence at Southern Methodist University

IA: This year’s Summit theme is “The Ties That Bind,” recognizing the values, ideas, and concrete actions that can bind us together. What about this theme resonates with you?

Maria: In my faith tradition, this is the title of a song we sing at the end of a worship service. It means that wherever we go in the world, no matter how far we are away from home, we are bound together by a common love, spirit, and mission. In our context, it means that no matter how different our traditions, expertise, education, or faith, we are bound together by a common love for community and peace. 

IA: It’s an increasingly divisive sociopolitical moment in the country, and we see the repercussions of this polarization in higher education. Why do you think a gathering like the Summit is important at this moment?

Maria: The Summit encourages those of us who do this work, day in and day out. Often, it feels like we are alone, screaming into the storm and being tossed and turned by the events of this crazy world. By coming together, even for a few days, we can recharge, rethink, regroup, and go back into the world to share the story of our common ties. 

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Summit 2024: Building Bridges in Higher Education

Shira Hoffer

Executive Director at the Institute for Multipartisan Education

IA: What are you most looking forward to about this year’s Summit?

Shira: I am so excited to be in a room full of people embracing each other’s differences and being in an intentional, pluralistic community with one another. This year has been so hard for so many of us, and it takes incredible courage to choose dialogue and curiosity in the face of deep polarization – so kudos to you! Faith has even more power to bridge divides than it does to sow them; I hope you will lean into the hardest moments, make meaningful connections this weekend, and bring them back to your home communities with joy and inspiration.

IA: This year’s Summit theme is “The Ties That Bind,” in recognition of the values, ideas, and concrete actions that can bind us together. What about this theme resonates with you?

Shira: In the days following October 7, I found myself increasingly frustrated with my Jewish and Israeli peers at their lack of sympathy for Gazans and equally frustrated with my Muslim and Palestinian peers at their lack of sympathy for Israelis. This gap inspired me to create the Hotline for Israel/Palestine, a texting hotline dedicated to responding to inquiries about the region — not with definitive answers, but with resources from multiple perspectives to empower the user to develop an informed position. Our volunteers, from different national, political, and religious backgrounds, have responded to over 300 inquiries nationwide.

I bring this up because one tie that binds is education. Our volunteers disagree vehemently sometimes, but they are united by their belief in the power of education to bring peace. Similarly, as students, we are all on campus because we want to expand our minds, social circles, and professional opportunities. How can we lean into education – to the power of responding to a disagreeable view with the question, “Why do you think that?” – to bridge polarization and build pluralistic, cohesive communities? Perhaps we can come together over the fact that there is so much we don’t yet know and how much we have to teach each other.

Oh, and you can test out the Hotline by texting your questions to 617-313-2125!

IA: It’s an increasingly divisive sociopolitical moment in the country, and we are seeing the repercussions of this polarization in higher education. Why do you think a gathering like the Summit is important at this moment?

Shira: First of all, there is power in the fact that we are all about to be in the same room despite such polarization — that is no small feat, and it’s an important signal that this type of gathering is possible.

If I had to stress one thing in today’s polarized world, it would be the importance of curiosity. We are losing our curiosity when we refuse to listen to the other side when we remain in our siloes and stereotype those on the outside. I founded a nonprofit called the Institute for Multipartisan Education (which hosts the Hotline and offers K-12 consulting and a college fellowship) with the mission of sustainably increasing and improving the capacity for curious approaches to difference and disagreement in educational settings because I believe curiosity is our biggest tool of change here. Curiosity has benefits ranging from promoting critical thinking to improving interpersonal relationships.

It represents vulnerability and a desire to understand. The fact that you are all coming together this weekend — on your own accord — demonstrates that you have at least a spark of that curiosity.

I hope this Summit brings all these sparks together so that you can go home and illuminate a spirit of curiosity on your campuses, your communities, and our democracy.

Manu Meel

CEO of BridgeUSA

IA: This year’s Summit theme is “The Ties That Bind.” What about this theme resonates with you?

Manu: Given what’s happening worldwide, “The Ties That Bind” is the timeliest theme. After the events of Saturday, July 13, there’s a unique moment where we’re more willing to extend sympathy to our political opponents than we were on the Friday before. And because we’re in this environment where we’re more willing to extend an empathetic year to the people we disagree with, focusing on how you mobilize empathy into constructive action and a belief in each other is especially important now.

Manu: Having the Summit occur between the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) — in probably one of the most divided times in American political history — allows us to set the context for why this work matters at this time. Many people often think about bridgebuilding and think it’s “kumbaya” or “broccoli,” and we have a hard time making the case that it is especially important at this moment. Having the Summit at a time when people are so viscerally experiencing the real-world consequences of division allows them to channel and understand why this work matters.

Zachary Davis

Executive Director of Faith Matters

IA: What about the theme “The Ties That Bind” resonates with you?

Zachary: Something my faith has given me is a vision of a people working together for the good of all and united by love for God and each other. I’ve found that nothing is better at creating deep connections than working together for something worthwhile. That worthwhile thing doesn’t even need to be achieved as long as we’re walking together toward the horizon of hope; individual threads can become a thick tapestry.

Zachary: The university is sacred. It is a place, time, and community set apart from ordinary life so that the ideals of truth and wisdom can be pursued and cultivated. It is tragic when universities are instrumentalized as merely training and credentialing for the needs of the market. It is also tragic when universities become battlegrounds in our endless culture war. Becoming drawn into the vortex can distort universities and citizens’ understanding of and support for the higher purpose of these institutions. Gatherings like these can remind us that even across visible differences, there is a citizenship of learning that can build bridges of love.

Kiyomi Kowalski

Co-Founder, Jewbian Princess; VP of Partnerships, Project Shema

IA: What are you most looking forward to about this year’s Summit?

Kiyomi: I have never attended a Summit, so I am approaching this with a fresh perspective. However, we are at a critical moment in this country where the Jewish community needs allies in the interfaith community, so I am looking forward to discussing how to reset interfaith alliances in a post-October 7 world.

IA: This year’s Summit theme is “The Ties That Bind.” What about this theme resonates with you?

Kiyomi: Current discourse often causes many of us to focus on what divides us. While I deeply believe that honoring what makes us different makes us stronger, there are so many values that we hold in common. “The Ties That Bind” is a reminder that interfaith groups must remember what we have in common and focus on common values, which is always a good place to begin any successful coalition.

Najeeba Syeed

El-Hibri endowed chair and executive director of the Interfaith Institute at Augsburg University

IA: What are you most looking forward to about this year’s Summit?

Najeeba: I always look forward to connecting with students nationwide and leading us through complex, complicated, and significant challenges. Students inspire me every day, and these are stories we don’t often get to hear.

IA: This year’s Summit theme is “The Ties That Bind,” in recognition of the values, ideas, and concrete actions that can bind us together. What about this theme resonates with you?

Najeeba: As a professor of religion and head of an interfaith institute, I believe that college campuses can offer compassion, critical thinking, and community to everyone who shows up. I am hopeful we can explore how to create spaces that set the table for everyone and are imbued with love and hope.