Hey everyone! I’m back with another one of my blogs prior to the Eid season. Today’s blog is about a reflection before the Soliya intercultural learning program starts.

What Have I Learned Intellectually?

Throughout the course, I have learnt many things intellectually. For example, I have learnt how to categorize and use different AI tool, which was part of the researching AI tools assignment. For me, this was very useful because I was not experienced with the different AI and their different uses. However, after finishing the assignment and learning the differences between the researched AI tools, I now feel much more experienced with the AI tools I researched, and I use them for most of my courses for research purposes. I also learnt a lot of things about bias from Dr. Binna Kandola’s talk on bias – link. The talk was important because it discussed how our minds are usually primed to be biased, without us even noticing, which was new to me. I just did not know it was this subtle and that the smallest things can affect how we perceive others. This is important, because this means that we always have a bias that we need to be aware of, which is something that Dr. Kandola also mentions. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the biases that we have in order to avoid being subjective and prejudiced. Moreover, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s talk titled “The Danger of a Single Story” was very useful, because it emphasizes that we should never make judgments based on one single narrative of a story – link. Therefore, we should rather hear everyone’s narrative to form an objective opinion. This is important because Adichie’s talk combined with Dr. Kandola’s talk, made me think about the biases I have had in the past regarding things, and how my perspective has changed. During the course I also learned about racism. For instance, Jay Smooth’s talk deals with how to address racist people. Smooth adds that we should focus on “what they did” more than “what they are”, because this makes the person reflect on what they said/did – link. I think that Soliya would be an interesting experience, because I would get to explore the topic of bias and prejudice, with my newly gained knowledge from both Adichie’s and Kandola’s talk.

What Have I Learned about Myself?

Throughout the course, the way I view my identity changed. For example, earlier in the semester, we had an activity where we had to choose a few words from among list to represent our identity. This made me reprioritize the way I represent my identity, and it made me think of how I view myself and the world around me. For instance, during that activity, I found that I strongly associate myself with being a Muslim, an Arab, and an Egyptian. Indeed, this is how I view myself and the world around. I am deeply involved in and care about issues that affect the Arab world and Egypt, more than things that happen in the West. However, I do not know how the way I view my identity will change, which is something that would be interesting to explore with Soliya. I expect my identity to impact my Soliya talks, as I would be speaking as a Muslim Egyptian Arab. This is important because my views and opinions would reflect my identity, which will be good for people from other cultures since they will get an idea about how people my age who are Muslim and Egyptian think, or at least some of them. Likewise, I think I will benefit greatly from speaking to people from other cultures, because it will help me know more about other cultures. This is crucial for me because learning about other cultures will help reduce any biases I have, give me new insights and perspectives, and broaden the horizons of my mind.

What Have I Learned in Terms of Interactions with People Who are Different from Me?

I am someone who likes to discuss with people who have different opinions. Therefore, I welcome interactions with people who are different from me because, as previously stated, these kinds of talks and discussions give me new insights and ideas that might not have occurred to me otherwise. Nonetheless, with Dr. Kandola’s talk in mind, cross-cultural talks are always welcome, because I believe that I have biases that I could be unaware of, and, thus, cross-cultural talks could help raise my awareness about these biases. I think that this in turn will make me a better “global citizen”. Also, I would like to learn more about what it means to be a better “global citizen” – is it just sympathizing with everyone else?

The Soliya talks will definitely enhance my ability to interact with culturally different people because it would help me become aware of my biases, and, thus, be as objective as possible, and it would give me different perspectives on various topics, which is essential when dealing with people from different cultures.

What Do You Expect Would Happen if the Issue of Palestine Came up in Soliya?

As previously mentioned, being an Arab Egyptian Muslim, I would welcome any talk about Palestine because I would be able to speak about pivotal topic that is close to my heart and mind. If I were able to direct the discussion, I would make sure that my colleagues are aware about the injustice and suffering that is happening in Palestine and Gaza, especially the things that are not on the news – 40,000 Palestinians have been kicked out of their homes by the IDF in the West Bank during the past month. I do not think I would require any particular kind of support.

That’s all for today’s reflection. I hope you liked it, and let me know your feedback in the comments.

Happy Eid everyone!

Header Image Credit: Link.