The Windsor-Birzeit Dignity Initiative is an international, interdisciplinary, multi-faceted partnership between the University of Windsor (Canada) and Birzeit University (Palestine) that aims to study and further human dignity.
Inspired by the increasing call for dignity from communities and committed to the ideals of engaged, transformative scholarship, the Windsor-Birzeit Dignity Initiative assumes an organic relationship between dignity and free will. It therefore emphasizes free will as both an end and a value that informs the Initiative's activities.
The Initiative’s main aims include:
- Generating theoretical and methodological innovations designed to reflect and support dignity
- Creating multifaceted platforms for scholars, students, public officials and communities to discuss and develop ways to further dignity with special attention to the Arab world
- Undertaking field research and empirical studies that present practical illustrations of the importance of dignity as a transformative concept
- Encouraging dignity in teaching as both an area of inquiry and a pedagogical approach
- Facilitating university-societal partnerships in the service of human dignity
- Encouraging teaching and scholarship that engages lived realities
