The University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression will launch this fall, and Divinity School alum Tony Banout (PhD'12) will be its inaugural Executive Director.

To further deepen its engagement on a wide range of issues related to free inquiry and expression, the University will launch the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression this fall. In a Feb. 27 email to the UChicago community, President Paul Alivisatos announced the appointment of Tom Ginsburg, the Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law, as the Forum’s inaugural faculty director. Tony Banout will serve as its inaugural executive director.

Banout will become the Forum’s inaugural executive director, effective April 3. As senior vice president for Interfaith America, he guided the development of strategies and programs devoted to democratic discourse and civil conversation in and beyond higher education. Banout has spoken and published widely on free expression, constructive engagement of difference and the civic relevance of religious diversity. A lifelong advocate for ideological diversity and inclusion in academia, he serves as a board member at Heterodox Academy. Banout was also a Martin Marty Center Junior Fellow and Provost Dissertation Fellow.

More information