The School of Law at Queen Mary University of London is convening a dialogue on tolerance, in partnership with Tolerance Means Dialogues, an organization hosting essay contests and public conversations designed to "bring together students and thought leaders to find more constructive approaches to living together in a pluralistic society."
The event will be hosted in Room 313 of the Laws Building at Queen Mary University of London in London, UK, on Thursday 23 November from 2:00 to 3:30 pm GMT. Lunch will be served at 1:30 pm directly before the dialogue.
Co-sponsors of the event include the Fairness for All Initiative, the 1st Amendment Partnership, and Queen Mary's Centre for Law, Democracy, and Society.
This event will feature a panel moderated by Eric Heinze, Professor of law and humanities at Queen Mary and Executive Director of the Centre for Law, Democracy, and Society.
The first panelist is Dr John Adenitire, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary School of Law and Co-Director of the Forum on Decentering the Human. The second panelist is Robin Fretwell Wilson, the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law, and founder and Director of Tolerance Means Dialogues. The third panelist is Shannon Minter, Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. All three panelists will aim to understand how mutual respect is achieved in a plural society.
Undergraduate and graduate students from Queen Mary University of London were invited to submit essays. Scholarships will be provided to winning essays on the topic of how mutual respect is achieved in a plural society. Two undergraduates and one graduate student have been chosen as the scholarship winners. They will receive $750 USD and will participate in the Dialogue.
Undergraduate winner Fedelis Le Ying Lim said: “Showing empathy towards others would bridge any gaps or differences in culture, religion, opinion and insights, and the world would be more peaceful and harmonious even in a time of division. Therefore, tolerance was never about breaking down walls between different views; it was and will always be about building bridges.”
Undergraduate winner Abdullah Alkariemy said: “Tolerance is recognizing our shared humanity and embracing it as the foundation for a harmonious and empathetic society.”
Graduate winner Sarah Faulkner said: “Tolerance is therefore a starting point for dialogue, a ceasefire that brings diverse interests into the room with a shared purpose. The role of dialogue in this scenario is to build foundations of community that enable collaboration and co-production in the design of a different future.”
Read the previous winners' essays.
The event is free to the public, but an RSVP is appreciated. You may attend in person or via Zoom. Please RSVP for the Tolerance Means Dialogue Event. A $250 participation prize will be given to a student randomly chosen from those who submit questions via social media during the event.