What are the origins of intolerance and prejudice? How are intolerance and prejudice similar, and how are they different?
Are there certain people who are more intolerant or more prejudiced than others? How can the social problem of intolerance and prejudice be solved?
These are among the questions to be addressed by a panel of international scholars as part of an interdisciplinary forum on “Intolerance and Prejudice” from 4-6 p.m. today in the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Science Building, Room 300.
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will provide opening remarks for the forum, which is free and open to the public. The audience will be encouraged to participate in an open dialogue with panelists.
The forum is being organized by Alan Lambert, Ph.D., professor of psychology, and James L. Gibson, Ph.D., the Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government, both in Arts & Sciences, as part of a University’s Initiative for Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research Grant.
Gibson and Lambert are co-teaching a psychology course on “Intolerance and Prejudice” this semester. The forum provides students with an opportunity to interact with key opinion leaders on the topic.
Forum organizers suggest that the need to know more about intolerance and prejudice is likely to loom especially large for social scientists in the United States, as the country shows rapid movement toward an increasingly multicultural society.
“Fundamental questions about intolerance and prejudice remain unresolved,” Lambert said. “In this forum, we will discuss these and other matters from an interdisciplinary perspective, considering how theory and research in political science, psychology and sociology can lead to a greater understanding of these important issues for the evolution of democracy within a multicultural context.”
Gibson, who works on problems of political intolerance throughout the world, agreed.
“Intolerance and prejudice are two of the greatest threats to democracy in the world today,” Gibson said, “and only by harnessing the best tools and minds of the various social science disciplines can headway be made in overcoming intolerance and prejudice.”
For more information, call Laura Nesse at 935-8578.