John Tomasi, the inaugural president of Heterodox Academy (HxA), will speak on “The University at a Crossroads – and How We Can Build Cultures of Open Inquiry” Nov. 18, 5:30-7 p.m. in Lewis Auditorium, G76 Goldwin Smith. The talk, free and open to the public, will also be live streamed; register here.
Tomasi’s lecture is part of a series of events organized by the Provost’s Committee on the Future of the American University, which is exploring how Cornell can evolve to best serve future generations while pursuing its core mission of education, scholarship, public impact, and community engagement. These events are intended to spur a community conversation around key topics, including public trust in universities, AI and higher education, fostering pluralism and the future of research.
“Tomasi argues that universities need to be more open to dissenting ideas in order to fulfill university’s truth-seeking mission, but that reform should happen from within rather than be imposed from without,” said event organizer Phoebe Sengers, co-chair of the committee and professor of science and technology studies in the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S) and of information sciences in Cornell Bowers College of Computer and Information Science.
“The real question for us now is whether universities will simply mirror the polarization of our society – or model something better,” Tomasi said. “Can we show that disagreement, done well, is not a threat but a form of collaboration? That people who think differently can still make progress together?”
Sengers said she hopes the event will offer participants an opportunity to take part in a larger debate about political polarization at universities, whether universities as a whole or specific disciplines have become too much of an ideological monoculture, and if so, what should be done about it. She noted that while some feel that that universities are already as open as they should be, others feel that pressure from the outside is needed to expand the range of viewpoints and to reduce liberal bias.
“Heterodox Academy offers a third way, offering programs and policies that support open inquiry through dialogue within the academy ather than through force from outside,” Sengers said. She added that such an approach could build on Cornell’s strong program in constructive dialogue led by the Center for Dialogue and Pluralism.
HxA is a nonpartisan nonprofit of more than 8,000 faculty and administrators advocating for and committed to building cultures of open inquiry across the academy.
Since joining HxA in 2021, Tomasi has led major initiatives to strengthen such a culture on campuses, including the Open Inquiry U reform agenda, a guiding document to drive internal reform within the academy. Prior to joining HxA in 2021, Tomasi was the Romeo Elton 1843 Professor of Natural Theology at Brown University, where he founded the Political Theory Project to promote dialogue across ideological divides. He earned graduate degrees from the University of Arizona and Oxford University and is the author of “Free Market Fairness” (2012) and co-author of “The Individualists” (2023, with Matt Zwolinski).
The event is co-sponsored by the Provost’s Committee on the Future of the American University and the Program on Freedom and Free Societies (A&S).
