1. Cognitive/Intellectual Learning
Throughout the first portion of this course, I have learned how deeply entrenched oppression and bias are within our structures and everyday language. A foundational concept was learning to categorize discrimination through the four “I”s of oppression: Ideological, Institutional, Interpersonal, and Internalized. I explored these concepts directly during the socioeconomic class activity with my classmate Omar, where we analyzed how societal hierarchies are maintained.

Another thing that I learned came from reading Lina Mounzer’s essay on war and translation, which highlighted how language itself can wage war by mimicking the “casual dehumanization of a bomb.” The text illustrated how Western media reduces the massive loss of Arab life to mere statistics, where “sentences become coffins too small to contain all the multitudes of grief.” Furthermore, Mounzer illustrates the immense difficulty of translating not just the literal words but also the devastating feelings and lived realities behind them. She points out that even after she translated her words, people practically refused to engage with them; she found that “no one really wanted to hear them, be near them.” The translated experiences felt so “cumbersome and huge” that they formed a barrier, setting her apart and making others uncomfortable. This directly ties into Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s concept of “The Danger of a Single Story.” When a culture is reduced to a single narrative of constant violence, it strips people of their full humanity, like how some Western extremists always link the Palestinians to Hamas to justify the genocide.

Additionally, learning about the (identifiable victim effect) revealed a flaw in human rationality: people are far more likely to empathize with a single, named victim than a massive group facing an objectively worse tragedy. This came to life when Professor Kallman asked the class whether we would donate to a single person or a large group. Many of us chose the single person because we believed the money could fundamentally change his life, whereas the same amount diluted across a massive group wouldn’t make as much of a visible impact. Finally, participating in the (Privilege Walk), where we got two identities and based on it we took steps forward based on some questions showing how physical visualization of how institutional and ideological advantages accumulate. I still wonder how we can systematically overcome the identifiable victim effect and single stories on a global scale, and I hope my Soliya experience will help me understand how peers from other cultures process these exact media narratives.

Part 2: Intrapersonal Learning
Looking back on these topics has really made me think about who I am and how I see the world. A lot of that comes down to my native language. When we read Mounzer’s essay, I was struck by how she talked about the heavy emotional weight of Arabic. She pointed out that the word for “witness” (shahed) comes from the exact same root as “martyr” (shaheed) and dying for a cause (istishhad). It perfectly describes the psychological toll I feel as an Arab watching the news and processing everything going on in our region right now. Going into the Soliya program, I know my identity as a young Arab guy is going to be a factor. I’m expecting my international group members to come in with their own stereotypes about the Middle East. Because of that, I might feel that familiar pressure of being the “outsider” who has to constantly explain and justify my reality to them. But instead of letting that get to me, I want to use Soliya to learn more about how people from different backgrounds think about arabs in general. I want to pay attention to how I react in those moments and practice standing my ground, being completely myself, even when someone challenges my point of view.

Part 3: Interpersonal Learning
When it comes to interacting with people who are different from me, this course has shown me that true empathy requires active effort. It showed me how stepping into someone else’s shoes can completely shift your worldview. Also, watching the video on microaggressions made me realize how everyday comments can quietly carry heavy prejudices. A question I still have is how to actually be a good citizen when dealing with people whose views clash with my core values. I want my Soliya experience to be a testing ground for this.

Part 4: Navigating the Middle East Conflict in Soliya

Given everything happening right now, I fully expect the topic of Palestine, Iran, or the broader Middle East to come up during Soliya. If it does, I expect to see the types of ideological and institutional oppression we talked about in class. We did an “Empathy & Excuses” exercise where we came up with excuses to forgive someone for a simple pet peeve. However, I worry I may hear some people making excuses to justify extreme violence against Arabs based on the media they consume, especially after what happened in FRance. My main goal would be to strip away the cold statistics and challenge the casual dehumanization of Arab victims, especially on the internet.

https://lithub.com/war-in-translation-giving-voice-to-the-women-of-syria/ slides:- oct 12 oct 15 oct 19