Collaborative Events
Know Your Neighbor Interfaith Dinner - Religion & Politics
Get to know your fellow Lakers from across different religious, secular, and spiritual identities and traditions over a free dinner and intentional conversation. This is a space of deep listening, connection, and dialogue - a chance to learn from the e...
Campus Conversation - Are You Being Watched? A Conversation About Networked Surveillance Cameras
Networked surveillance cameras like Flock Safety cameras are quietly reshaping how movement is tracked across the country. As these cameras spread across municipal roads and university campuses nationwide, the line between safety and surveillance is be...
Sacred Site Visit - St Nicholas Orthodox Church (INT 100/201 approved)
Join the Kaufman Interfaith Institute and GVSUs Religious Studies Department as we visit different sacred sites around the greater Grand Rapids area over the course of the 2026-2027 academic year. Our November visit is to Saint Nicholas Antiochian Orth...
Sacred Site Visit - Grand Rapids Buddhist Temple
Join the Kaufman Interfaith Institute and GVSUs Religious Studies Department as we visit different sacred sites around the greater Grand Rapids area over the course of the 2026-2027 academic year. Our December visit is to the Grand Rapids Buddhist Temp...
Common Ground: The Separation of Church & State
The Founders had strong, and often conflicting, beliefs about the proper relationship between religion and government, beliefs that still shape how Americans debate religious liberty today. Our panel will examine what the founders truly believed about...
Open Minds Book Club: Artificial Intimacy
For the January 2027 session of Open Minds, we will be reading and discussing Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines by Sherry Turkle. Artificial Intimacy is unique in how it traces our new habit of talking to machines through the...
Presidents' Day Luncheon
Every presidency leaves behind lessons in leadership, but few offer as clear a window into the daily decisions of power as a firsthand account from inside the room. Join us for our annual Presidents' Day Luncheon featuring Frank Lavin, who will draw on...
Open Minds Book Club: The Constitution of Knowledge
For the February 2027 session of Open Minds, we will be reading and discussing The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth by Jonathan Rauch. Disinformation. Trolling. Conspiracies. Social media pile-ons. Campus intolerance. On the surface, these...
Top 10 Best and Worst Foreign Policy Decisions
Not every major foreign policy decision ages well, and looking back at the ones that succeeded, and the ones that failed, reveals as much about the nature of American power as any single success story could. Join us for Top 10 Best and Worst Foreign Po...
Open Minds Book Club: A Bell for Adano
For the March 2027 session of Open Minds, we will be reading and discussing A Bell for Adano by John Hersey. This classic novel and winner of the Pulitzer Prize tells the story of an Italian-American major in World War II who wins the love and admirati...
John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic
The second president of the United States inherited an office with no real playbook and a nation already pulling in different directions, making his choices about how to lead all the more consequential. Join us for a conversation with historian Lindsay...