Harvard President Drew Faust established the Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging in 2016. In her charge to the new group, Faust said, “To realize the community’s full promise and to foster the personal and intellectual transformation at the heart of our mission, we must also work affirmatively and collectively to advance a culture of belonging.”
The group will include students, faculty, and staff, and will be chaired by Ali Asani, professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures.
The Gazette spoke with Asani ’77, AM ’81, Ph.D. ’84, to learn more about the work ahead.
GAZETTE: Tell us a little bit about the working group, what the charge is, and what you hope to accomplish.
ASANI: The working group is charged with evaluating symbols and spaces of engagement in the College. One of Harvard’s many strengths is the diversity of its community. A central goal of the College’s educational mission is to encourage students to engage with this diversity. Such engagement can not only be transformative, personally and intellectually, but also provides a skill that is critical to living in a nation, indeed a world, marked by difference. The working group will examine how well we are doing in fulfilling this mission and where there is room for improvement.
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