Professor Mark Hanshaw, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Arts & Letters, will be offering a presentation on the future of Interfaith Studies at the Sixth Annual President’s Interfaith Challenge Conference in Washington, D.C., on September 22. The President’s Interfaith Challenge Conference is an annual meeting of religious leaders and academicians, established by President Barak Obama, as an effort to support and encourage interfaith engagement across the country. The conference is organized each year by the White House and its purpose is to encourage a broader engagement with and understanding of issues affecting diverse religious communities.

“It is a wonderful honor and opportunity to be included as a part of this important event,” Dr. Hanshaw said. “It is only through endeavors such as this conference that we can begin to overcome the social challenges that stem from religious misinformation.”

Hanshaw will address the role of Interfaith topics in university curriculum. In this session, he will be accompanied by Usra Ghazi from the U.S. Department of State, who will address diplomatic efforts involving interfaith education, and by a group from Concordia College, in Moorhead, Minnesota, which has conducted research on interfaith education. Also included in the panel will be a representative of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), Chicago, Illinois.

The Interfaith Challenge Conference will be held this year on the campus of Gallaudet University, in Washington D.C., from September 22 through 23.