The Diversity Principle with Professor David Oppenheimer

Join Professor David Oppenheimer as he discusses his newest book, The Diversity Principle: The Story of a Transformative Idea (Yale 2026)! Please RSVP to attend the event.

 

He tells the 200+ year history of the idea that when people with different backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints engage with each other they make better decisions. Compared with groups that are more homogeneous, diverse groups do a better job of solving problems, making discoveries, teaching and learning from each other and improving democratic discourse. This was a core tenet of the first modern research university, founded in Germany in 1810. It was the inspiration for John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, a touchstone of academic freedom, a hallmark of Charles Eliot’s remaking of Harvard in the late nineteenth century to promote the “clash of ideas,” and a foundation of Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Pauli Murray’s work for racial and gender equality in the mid-twentieth. 

 

The book talk will be followed by a reception with appetizers, soft drinks, and wine. The discussion will be in Room 105 from 5pm -6:30pm followed by a reception in the Donor Lobby on the 2nd floor from 6:30pm-7:30pm. Books will be available for sale and signature at the reception.