A Year Later, Seeking Common Ground
Muhammad Zaman of ENG works to improve campus life and climate
By Doug Most
Three months after the October 7, 2023, deadly attacks by Hamas on Israel, Kenneth Freeman, then Boston University president ad interim, established two working groups on campus, which reflected diverse traditions, ethnicities, and national origins, and included students, faculty, and staff. The goal was to discuss campus tensions, to address the myriad of concerns among students, faculty, and staff, and to offer recommendations on how to make campus life more inclusive, respectful, and civil during difficult times.
“The expectation is that as the semester progresses, the two working groups will find common ground and collaborate extensively,” Freeman wrote in his letter to the BU community. One year after the attacks, BU Today asked for an update on the working groups.
Muhammad Zaman, director of the Center for Forced Displacement at Boston University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health, headed the Working Group on Muslim and Arab Life and Addressing Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Harassment. Nancy Harrowitz, director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of Jewish and Italian studies, headed the Working Group on Jewish Life and Addressing Antisemitism and anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli Harassment.
Both agreed to answer questions about their progress and next steps. They emphasize that while they share a common goal, their working groups operated independent of each other.