Tufts Common Reading Program 2015
Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, by Eboo Patel, was chosen as the Common Reading book for entering Tufts undergraduates for fall 2015.
It was sent to all first-year and transfer students to read, and the author visited campus to lecture on Monday, September 21. The Common Reading Program is sponsored by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Students, this year in partnership with the University Chaplaincy.
For more information on the 2015 Common Reading Program, click here.
Eboo’s Visit to Campus on Monday, September 21, 2015
Lunch Workshop for Students on Interfaith Leadership
Noon-1:15 pm, Interfaith Center (58 Winthrop St.)
As part of his visit, Eboo led a lunch workshop for over 50 students about interfaith leadership. Participants learned about interfaith engagement, why it is important, and how it might relate to various other interests of students on and off campus.
This was a time for personal reflection as well as thinking about the potential for expanding interfaith dialogue and action at Tufts.
Coffee Workshop for Faculty and Staff: Incorporating Interfaith Engagement into the Classroom and Co-curricular Experience
2-3:15 pm, Interfaith Center (58 Winthrop St.)
As part of his visit, Eboo hosted an afternoon coffee workshop for faculty and staff on incorporating interfaith engagement into the curricular and cocurricular experience. Participants learned about interfaith engagement and discussed why religious and philosophical identities are often left out of classroom and co-curricular conversations. We explored case studies and discussed how spiritual and ethical identities and questions might be engaged more fully.
There was also an opportunity to explore personal identities and their relationships to our professional roles, as well as how we might create safer spaces for multiple social identities on campus.
Here are additional articles that were used as background for the conversation:
“A Somali Influx Unsettles Latino Meatpackers” (case study)
“Toward a Field of Interfaith Studies”
Author Lecture by Eboo Patel
Personal Stories, Radical Diversity, and Active Citizenship: Interfaith Leadership in the 21st Century
7:30 pm, Cohen Auditorium
Free and open to the public.
Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core and author of Tufts Common Reading book selection “Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation” believes that diverse faith and philosophical identities can serve as bridges of cooperation rather than barriers of division. Interfaith leaders have the knowledge base and skill set to voice their values, engage diversity, and act to advance the common good. Over 250 students, staff, faculty, and community members were in attendance. A book signing followed the lecture at 8:30 pm.