The Culture of Encounter Project - Georgetown University

Pope Francis and many others have underscored the negative impact of digital technologies in isolating people from one another and driving fragmentation and polarization across our societies – the very opposite of a culture of encounter. At the same time, the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the capacity of online platforms to connect people at great distances. In this working paper Thomas Banchoff contends that digital connectivity gives colleges and universities the opportunity to convene students from around the world to listen to and learn from one another, fostering a culture of encounter and advancing education for global citizenship in new ways.