Abstract

We are often told that stories can change the world.  Yet stories need someone to tell them.  It is really storytellers that change the world.  Drawing on years of experience in the field of peacebuilding, combating violent extremism and supporting civil society organizations, Abdul-Rehman Malik, a lecturer and research fellow at Yale University, explores the importance of storytelling in building bridges and resolving conflict. Exploring recent work in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and East Africa, in this presentation, he will expound on the ways in which stories can empower people to imagine a world beyond violence and division.  More importantly, he will explore how storytelling can help strengthen social inclusion and cohesion, and inter-faith encounter and engagement, while mitigating conflict.

Speaker

Abdul-Rehman Malik is an award-winning journalist, educator, and cultural organizer.  His work at the intersection of faith and social change has spanned the globe, with projects in Canada, the USA, UK, Pakistan, Sudan, Indonesia, Mali and more.  Abdul-Rehman is a Lecturer and Associate Research Scholar at the Yale Divinity School where he teaches courses in Islamic theology.  He is a founder of the Caravanserai Collective whose “Cerita Caravan” program has provided narrative strategies to storytellers and civil society actors as they do vital interfaith and inter-cultural peacebuilding work in conflict and post-conflict contexts around the world.  He was an inaugural fellow of the Cambridge Interfaith Programme’s Senior Faith in Leadership Program, a groundbreaking inter-faith leadership initiative.  A veteran contributor to BBC Radio and several media organisations, he is also host of the Aga Khan Museum’s popular podcast This Being Human which is now in its third season.