Thursday, March 17
Interacting among cultures calls for a change to be more open to understanding and accepting people who bring a different orientation and view of life. Can we really put ourselves in the shoes of someone who has a different cultural background?
Join the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNL for the interactive symposium “Let’s Talk: Understanding and Embracing Individuals from the Middle East,” on Thursday, March 17, at the Unitarian Church, 6300 A St., from 1 to 4 p.m.
The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Dr. Helen Abdali Soosan Fagan, a diversity scholar and a University of Nebraska lecturer, will lead the discussion and moderate a panel of Lincoln residents with Middle Eastern heritage.
Fagan is a leadership and diversity scholar and consultant with over 25 years experience in the human resource field. She is currently the president of Global Leadership Group and a lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
She studied international economics and British political economy at Oxford University during the formation of the European Union.
In 2000, Fagan was the first diversity coordinator for Bryan Health System where she served until 2007. During that time, she created a nationally recognized hospital diversity initiative.
Her greatest passion is to develop and expand cultural competence capacity in organizations and communities by developing the leaders who work and serve in them.
The four panelists include:
Amir Azimi, a native of Iran, has been involved with diversity and cross-cultural communication training since 1982. He is the administrator of Support Service for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. He is a speaker and advocate on the subjects of cultural awareness, cross-cultural communications and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Abla Hasan is an assistant professor of practice of Arabic at UNL and an undergraduate advisor. She earned a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Damascus University in 2000 and a Ph.D in Philosophy of Language from UNL in 2009. Her current teaching and research interests include feminism, religious studies, translation, and Arabic literature.
Farida Ebrahim was born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her family was forced to leave the country and take temporary refuge in India before moving to Lincoln in 1991. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology form UNL and a master's degree in epidemiology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center.She established the Afghan Renascent Youth Association in 2001 to help educate residents of Lincoln about the plight of Afghan women and children.
James D. Le Sueur is professor of history at UNL and is a specialist in world history. He has been on the faculty of UNL since 2001 and earned his Ph.D formthe University of the Chicago. In 2002, he was elected a permanent senior associate member of St. Antony's College, in Oxford. He is the author of several works, most recently “Algeria Since 1989: Between Democracy and Terror.” He has been working on a digital oral history and documentary film called “Exile and the Fatwa: the Life and Death of Artists after Rushdie.”
Free. Open to the public. Registration is required.
Register online for this event: http://go.unl.edu/xk0u
Register by telephone: 402-472-6265
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/b6xq